Hezbollah chief Hassan Nasrallah on Saturday said last summer's war with Israel had foiled US plans for a new Middle East, in a speech broadcast on a huge screen near the Israeli border in south Lebanon.
"This war aimed to impose a new Middle East, broken up into confessional and ethnic mini-states, serving the interests of the United States and Israel," said the leader of the Shiite militant group which held out against the Israeli army for 34 days in July and August 2006.