WASHINGTON – The State Department says it found unusual Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah's statement that he would not have ordered the abduction of two Israeli soldiers if he had known it would lead to a large war.
"It was a surprising statement for somebody who launched a war to say that he regretted launching that war," department spokesman Sean McCormack said Monday.
"It is, in fact, what we have warned and the world has warned against," McCormack said. "That is, allowing a state within a state such as Hezbollah to drag an entire sovereign nation (Lebanon) and region into a pit of violence, which is what Hezbollah and Nasrallah did."
He said the United States expects Hezbollah to be disarmed, as twice demanded by the U.N. Security Council.
"The how and the when of that is something for the Lebanese government and the Lebanese people to decide," McCormack said.
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