Egypt has accused Hezbollah of provoking conflict with Israel in order to justify the Shia group's continued existence in Lebanon. Ahmed Abul Gheit, Egypt's foreign minister, said that Hassan Nasrallah, Hezbollah's leader, sought war with Israel to foil plans by the Lebanese government to disarm the group. "There had been an agreement, through discussions in Lebanon, to implement the 1989 Taif Accord, which calls for the disarming of the militias in the country," the minister said in an interview with Egyptian public television late on Saturday. "Perhaps through the operation [against Israel] Nasrallah wanted to find a way out of the situation," he said. Abul Gheit also condemned Nasrallah for launching what he called a "not very calculated" operation which had exposed the country to "great losses, even if some feel pride or victory".
"Any military operation must have a political goal. This operation did not achieve anything," he said.