Hezbollah admits fighting Islamic State in Iraq

Hassan Nasrallah, the leader of the Lebanese Shiite group Hezbollah, on Monday publicly acknowledged for the first time that his organization has been fighting against the Islamic State group in Iraq.

In a videotaped speech broadcast to his supporters in southern Beirut, Nasrallah said that IS is the most immediate threat to regional stability, and called on Arab states to unite against the Sunni jihadists rather than rely on the US, which has been bombing IS targets in Iraq, The Washington Post reported.

“He who relies on the Americans relies on an illusion,” he said. “You rely on someone who is stealing from you and conniving against you.”

Nasrallah urged Arab nations to break away from the US and instead lend their support to Hezbollah, which is backed by Iran and the Assad regime in Syria, in order to defeat the Sunni militants of IS.

“We won’t wait for the Americans, nor will we wait for NATO,” he vowed, and noted how in Iraq local tribes had mobilized against the Islamic State independently of the US.

“In Iraq, they didn’t wait. Until now, the Americans aren’t giving them arms,” he said. “All of the arms are coming from Iran.”

Nasrallah also claimed that IS, which has proclaimed an Islamic caliphate in large swaths of Iraq and Syria, was working on behalf of Israel.

The Hezbollah leader invited volunteers to help in the Iraqi campaign and in the Syrian civil war, on behalf of its ally President Bashar Assad.

“To those who call for Hezbollah’s withdrawal from Syria, I invite you to come with us to Syria,” he said. “I invite you to come with us to Iraq.”

Nasrallah condemned the killing of 21 Coptic Christians in Libya by Islamic State-affiliated militants. The killing, which was documented in a widely publicized video clip, drew quick revenge from Egypt, which bombed IS sites in Libya, reportedly killing dozens of militants.