US State Department official calls Hezbollah 'unacceptable'

The US State Department criticized Lebanon’s Hezbollah on Monday (Jan. 15) for digging tunnels into Israel and stockpiling rockets, as Washington steps up efforts to isolate Tehran.

“While Lebanon has the right to defend itself, that is the right of the Lebanese state alone,” said David Hale, US under secretary of state for political affairs, after meeting Lebanese prime minister designate Saad al-Hariri.

“It is unacceptable to have a militia outside the control of the state, and unanswerable to all people of Lebanon digging attack tunnels across the blue line to Israel or assembling an arsenal of over 100,000 missiles with which to threaten regional stability,” he added.

In recent weeks, Israeli forces uncovered tunnels they said were dug by Hezbollah, and Lebanon complained about Israel’s construction of a barrier along disputed parts of the border.

Based on Reuters