Gen. Kenneth “Frank” McKenzie, the commander of U.S. Central Command (CENTCOM), has said that Iran is under great diplomatic and economic pressure, however, he does not consider Iran any less threatening against the U.S.

“I don’t consider Iran any less threatening right now than they were several months ago,” McKenzie told VOA in an interview published on Wednesday.

“Iran realizes they’re not going to, probably not going to be able to get us out [of Iraq] politically. So, they’ve got to make a decision: Do they want to move us out through the use of force? And that would be through the use of their proxy forces… that we know operate in Iraq and have actually been very well armed… And in fact, in past years have killed a lot of U.S. Marines, sailors, soldiers and airmen,” he said.

“So, I think Iran is beginning to think about testing the boundaries of what they can get away with to cause pain to us,” he added.

NA/PA