Gen. Kenneth ‘Frank’ McKenzie, the head of US Central Command – the Pentagon command responsible for the Middle East, has warned Lebanese political and militant group Hezbollah against attacking Israel.
“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 warned, speaking to reporters in Lebanon during a regional tour.
Suggesting that Hezbollah “remains a problem” for Lebanon and the region, McKenzie emphasized that the US “recognize[s] that it’s there. We’d be – I’d be blind to say we don’t see it there.”
Gen. McKenzie’s stopover in Lebanon was part of a trip which included stops in Saudi Arabia, Iraq, Bahrain, Jordan, Qatar, Kuwait, and US outposts in Syria. It was met with protests in Beirut, with some demonstrators waving Hezbollah flags and accusing the US of meddling in Lebanon’s internal affairs.
Last week, Hezbollah chief Hassan Nasrallah accused Washington of acting like a “colonist” and alleged that US Ambassador Dorothy Shea was “openly” meddling in the country and pushing it “toward infighting, sedition and civil strife.”