America's vision of reforming the Middle East by introducing Western-style democracy was crushed by reality following last summer's Lebanon war, Hizballah leader Sheikh Hassan Nasrallah said on Saturday.

Speaking via closed-circuit television, Nasrallah told a mass Hizballah rally in the southern Lebanon town of Bint Jbeil, scene of some of the heaviest fighting during the Second Lebanon War, that Washington's desire to create a Middle East in its own image was “gone with the wind” as a result of his group's perceived victory over Israel.

Nasrallah asserted that the was was a US-conceived effort to destroy Hizballah, as its existence and participation in the Lebanese legislature and government did not conform with the ideals of American democracy.

The war, in fact, began as a result of Hizballah launching an unprovoked cross-border raid on northern Israel, during which the group abducted two Israeli soldiers and killed eight others.