Nasrollah: US led Israel into war

Secretary General of Hezbollah has accused the United States of being behind Israel's military onslaught against Lebanon last year.

“The United States ordered the Zionist regime to invade Lebanon last summer,” said Sayyed Hasan Nasrollah in an exclusive interview with Iran's Al-Alam TV on Sunday.

“Israel went to war with Hezbollah to serve American ambitions in the Middle East,” he said, adding that the Winograd report “must have contained secret information on collaboration between the Zionist regime and some regional (Arab) states” during last summer's war.

According to Nasrollah, if published, the information would reveal that the Bush administration made the decision to launch the war against "the Lebanese resistance and Hezbollah as part of its plan to rebuild the Middle East in accordance with Israeli and American interests."

He said that the Lebanese resistance groups have as thus “foiled the US plots in the region", adding Washington, however, is sparing no efforts to fuel tensions among various Lebanese groups. According to Hezbollah leader, Lebanon war and the (Winograd) report exposed that the Israeli government suffers from severe leadership problems.

"Winograd said the current government and the Israeli governments that ruled since the regime's withdrawal from Lebanon (2000) were all inexperienced; and we are talking about governments that were led by (Benjamin) Netanyahu, (Ehud) Barak and (Ariel) Sharon - who are regarded as Israel's elite," Nasrollah said.

Nasrollah stressed that the Winograd report on Israeli leadership's failures during the 33-day war proves that "not only the path of resistance can bring victory but also our enemy can be defeated".