US says Hezbollah refuses talks because it is 'simply taking orders from Iran'

In a statement posted by the U.S. Embassy in Beirut in reply to a media inquiry, a State Department spokesperson said Hezbollah 'does not want to talk to the Lebanese state, nor talk to us, nor talk to Israel, because it is simply taking orders from Iran', said the group must disarm, and called Lebanon's government the 'sole legitimate interlocutor' on the country's future.

Why this matters. The statement follows a Lebanese TV report, denied by U.S. officials, that Ambassador Michel Issa had been cleared to meet Hezbollah, and restates that Washington will deal on Lebanon only through the Lebanese state.