US Commander: ‘Great mistake’ for Hezbollah to take on Israel

“I can’t see that having a good ending,” McKenzie said.

By David Isaac, World Israel News

General Kenneth McKenzie, Commander of U.S. Central Command (CENTCOM), said Hezbollah would be mistaken to try and take on Israel in a military conflict during a special briefing in Dubai on Tuesday.

“I think it would be a great mistake for Hezbollah to try to carry out operations against Israel. I can’t see that having a good ending,” McKenzie said.

McKenzie was responding to a question from a reporter for Lebanon-based newspaper Annahar: “Do you think Hezbollah might seek conflict with Israel in light of pressures that it’s facing due to the economic crisis in Lebanon?”

The CENTCOM chief said that “Hezbollah remains a problem, it remains an issue. We recognize that it’s there.”

McKenzie is making a tour of the Middle East, his first since February. He’s visited Lebanon, Saudi Arabia, Iraq, Bahrain, Jordan, Qatar and Kuwait.

During the briefing, he also fielded questions about Syria, Iraq and Iran.

Regarding the threats from the Islamic Republic, McKenzie said the U.S. has “established a posture in the theater that is designed to deter Iran from acting either indirectly or directly against United States, partner, or coalition forces.

“The posture we have is one that is designed to convince them that should they contemplate some malign activity, the cost of so doing would be greater than any object they might achieve by carrying out that action,” McKenzie said.

“So we believe they have always known and understood our capabilities, and our posture in the theater right now possesses significant capabilities for – that we could employ should we be required to do so. … Iran is newly sensitive to our will and our willingness to employ those forces should we be threatened by their malign activities,” he said.

Tensions between Iran and the U.S. have risen sharply since President Donald Trump abandoned the 2015 nuclear deal in May, 2018. The U.S. also slapped back sanctions on the regime, the premier supporter of terror in the Mideast.

Iran has threatened retaliation, including putting a bounty on the president’s head following the U.S. targeted killing of Gen. Qassem Soleimani, leader of Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps.