BEIRUT, (AP) – Hezbollah’s deputy chief says his group doesn’t want a dialogue with Washington until it changes its Mideast policy, which he said is totally biased toward Israel.

Sheik Naim Kassem was responding to Ryan Crocker, ex-U.S. ambassador in Iraq, who told Congress this month the United States should break with long-standing policy and start talking to the Iranian-backed group.

Crocker told a Senate hearing that the U.S. stands to gain more than it would lose by negotiating with Hezbollah, which the U.S. classifies as a terrorist organization.

Kassem added in an interview Monday that he does not expect a war with Israel, but the group is preparing for it “as if it is happening tomorrow.” The two sides fought a bloody monthlong war in 2006.