Lebanon’s Hezbollah acknowledges battling the Islamic State in Iraq

Liz Sly and Suzan Haidamous report for the Washington Post:

The leader of Lebanon’s Hezbollah movement acknowledged for the first time Monday that the Shiite militia has sent fighters to Iraq, and he urged Arab states throughout the region to set aside sectarian rivalries to confront the threat posed by the Islamic State. In a videotaped speech delivered to followers in Beirut’s southern suburbs, Hasan Nasrallah called on the region’s traditional American allies to abandon their reliance on the United States and instead align with Hezbollah — and by implication with its sponsor Iran — to defeat the Sunni extremists.

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