BEIRUT (AP) — The decision by Lebanon’s militant Hezbollah group to join the civil war in neighboring Syria and fight along President Bashar Assad’s forces was a historic and moral “mistake” toward the Syrian people, a leading Lebanese politician has said.

The harsh criticism by Walid Jumblatt, who leads Lebanon’s minority Druse sect, reflects his increasing pessimism about the bloody conflict next door, now in its fourth year.

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