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.

Instead of fighting in Syria, Hezbollah should have focused on archenemy Israel, Walid Jumblatt, who leads Lebanon's minority Druze sect, told The Associated Press during a recent interview at his home in Beirut.

"I say that the guns should be directed toward the Israeli enemy," Jumblatt said.

Although he leads a minority sect, Jumblatt is a pillar and a mainstay in Lebanese politics and is often referred to as the country's "kingmaker" because of his small bloc's track record of tipping the balance during key votes in parliament.

The harsh criticism by Jumblatt reflects his increasing pessimism about the bloody conflict next door, now in its fourth year.

"Hezbollah intervened in Syria and did not care about the Lebanese [public] opinion," Jumblatt said. "This is a historical and moral mistake toward the Syrian people."

Hezbollah's fighters openly entered the fight in Syria in May 2013 and were instrumental in helping Assad's troops push back rebels and re-capture strategic towns and rebel strongholds along the border with Lebanon and near Syria's capital, Damascus.

This turned the tide in the conflict, giving Assad's forces the upper hand against the rebels seeking to overthrow the Syrian leader, who last week won a third seven-year term in a presidential election derided as a farce by the opposition.

Syrian President Bashar Assad meets with Lebanese Druze leader Walid Jumblatt, in Damascus, Syria, March 31, 2010. Photo by AP

Now, the Syrian civil war will be "very long," Jumblatt said. Jumblatt — whose Druze are like Assad's Alawites, an offshoot of Shiite Islam — has been known for his shifting loyalties. His history with Hezbollah has been both complex and full of U-turns.

After the 2005 assassination of former Lebanese Prime Minister Rafik Hariri, Jumblatt sharply criticized Hezbollah and the Syrian government, which many in Lebanon blamed for the killing. Damascus denies it was behind Hariri's slaying.

In May 2008, tensions between Jumblatt's Druze followers and allies on one side and Hezbollah on the other erupted into street fighting in Beirut and nearby mountains, killing 81 people and nearly plunging Lebanon into another civil war.

In 2009, Jumblatt reconciled with the Hezbollah leader, Sheik Hassan Nasrallah, who the following year personally mediated a meeting between the Druze politician and Assad. That meeting was a sharp turn for Jumblatt, who only three years earlier had called the Syrian president a "snake" and a "tyrant."

Hezbollah leader Sheik Hassan Nasrallah meets with Druse leader Walid Jumblatt, in Beirut, Lebanon, Jan. 21, 2011. Photo by AP

Then, after his last visit to Damascus in June 2011, Jumblatt again broke with Assad.

"We are still at the beginning of the war in Syria. In the long term, the map of the Middle East will be redrawn," Jumblatt told the AP.

"The main winner is the Islamic Republic," he said referring to Iran, which is one of Assad's strongest allies.

The Syrian conflict, which has so far killed more than 160,000 people, a third of whom were civilians, has sharply divided the Lebanese, and violence has often spilled into the tiny Arab country, killing and wounding hundreds here.

Many Lebanese Shiites back Assad, while Lebanon's Sunnis back the mostly Sunni rebels fighting to overthrow him. Jumblatt has repeatedly urged his countrymen not to get involved in the Syrian conflict.

But from the topic of war, the Druze politician is quick to turn to lighter subjects when prompted.

Asked about actor George Clooney's engagement to 36-year-old Lebanese-British international law attorney Amal Alamuddin — who like Jumblatt happens to be a Druze — he smiled and said he hoped the couple would soon visit the Druze heartland.

Jumblatt said he would be happy to welcome Clooney in his palatial mansion in the Druze village of Mukhtara, high in the mountains over Beirut.

Clooney will bring us "great publicity," Jumblatt said. "He can make a movie about the Druze sect."