Hezbollah Leader Echoes Trump That Obama, Clinton Founded ISIS
Hassan Nasrallah quoted the GOP nominee in a speech criticizing the U.S.
— -- The leader of Hezbollah this weekend quoted Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump's accusation that President Obama and Trump's Democratic rival Hillary Clinton founded ISIS.
Hassan Nasrallah, leader of the Lebanese militant group, used Trump's claim last week that Obama and Clinton were behind the extremist group ISIS's establishment to bolster his criticism of the U.S. administration in a speech in Lebanon on Saturday, according to a transcript posted by the group's media arm.
"This is not simple speech,” Nasrallah said of Trump's remarks. “This is an American presidential candidate. This was spoken on behalf of the American Republican Party. He has data and documents.”
Trump said on Wednesday that Obama was "the founder of ISIS" and later expanded the claim to include Clinton. Trump repeated his accusation throughout the next day. He said Friday morning the comment was meant as sarcasm, but later that day qualified that by saying his initial claim was "not that sarcastic."
Hezbollah, a Shiite Muslim militant group and political party, has aligned itself with Syrian President Bashar Assad's regime in that government's civil war against rebel factions. The Lebanese group is also fighting ISIS.
The United States has openly called for Assad to step down and considers both Hezbollah and ISIS terrorist organizations.
ISIS was founded in its current incarnation by its present head, Abu Bark al-Baghdadi, in June 2014.