'Very bad decision' if Hezbollah joins Iran-Israel war, says US official

BEIRUT (Reuters) -A top U.S. official visiting the Lebanese capital on Thursday discouraged Tehran-backed armed group Hezbollah from intervening in the war between Iran and Israel, saying it would be a "very bad decision".

U.S. special envoy for Syria Thomas Barrack, who also serves as ambassador to Turkey, met Lebanese officials in Beirut as Iran and Israel traded more strikes in their days-long war and as the U.S. continues to press Lebanon to disarm Hezbollah.

After meeting Lebanon's Speaker of Parliament Nabih Berri, a close ally of Hezbollah, Barrack was asked what may happen if Hezbollah joined in the regional conflict.

"I can say on behalf of President (Donald) Trump, which he has been very clear in expressing as has Special Envoy (Steve) Witkoff: that would be a very, very, very bad decision," Barrack told reporters.

Hezbollah has condemned Israel's strikes on Iran and expressed full solidarity with its leadership. On Thursday, it said threats against Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei would have "dire consequences".

But the group has stopped short of making explicit threats to intervene. After Israel began strikes on Iran last week, a Hezbollah official told Reuters the group would not launch its own attack on Israel in response.

Hezbollah was left badly weakened from last year's war with Israel, in which the group's leadership was gutted, thousands of fighters were killed and strongholds in southern Lebanon and near Beirut were severely damaged.

A U.S.-brokered ceasefire deal which ended that war stipulates that the Lebanese government must ensure there are no arms outside state control.

Barrack also met Lebanese President Joseph Aoun on Thursday and discussed the state's monopoly on all arms.

Barrack is a private equity executive who has long advised Trump and chaired his inaugural presidential committee in 2016. He was appointed to his role in Turkey and, in late May, also assumed the position of special envoy to Syria.

(Reporting by Ahmad Kerdi and Maya Gebeily, editing by Ed Osmond)

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