Trump wants new Syrian regime to fight Hezbollah
As the White House has soured on Israel’s war with Hezbollah in Lebanon, US President Donald Trump has shocked many in the region by pushing an alternative: Let Syria fight the Iran-backed
militant group instead.
He has suggested that the battle-hardened and Islamist-led insurgents who overthrew Syria’s autocratic President Bashar Assad a year and a half ago and formed a new government would do a better job of rooting out Hezbollah than the Israeli army.
Syrian President Ahmad al-Sharaa has said he has no interest in doing so, and has asserted that Trump’s comments were misconstrued. But Trump has doubled down on the idea. Although it remains unclear how serious the White House is about the proposal, the prospect of a Syrian invasion has raised alarms in Lebanon — and also in Israel, which regards al-Sharaa’s Islamist-led government with suspicion and has seized control of a strip of southern Syria since he took power.
Syria has also become the site of rising tensions between Israel and Turkiye — a main backer of al-Sharaa’s government — with each seeking to limit the other’s influence in the neighbouring country. Top Israeli security officials convened a meeting on the subject on Wednesday, according to an official who spoke on the condition of anonymity because they were not authorised to speak to the media.
On the sidelines of the G7 summit earlier this month, Trump complained that Israel’s war with Hezbollah is dragging on too long and “too many people are being killed.” More than 4,000 people have been killed by Israeli strikes in Lebanon since Hezbollah joined the wider Iran war with a March 2 attack on Israel, including hundreds of women and children.
Israel says its strikes target Hezbollah and that it takes measures to protect civilians. “You don’t have to knock down an apartment house every time you’re looking for somebody, because there are a lot of people in those apartment houses and they’re not all Hezbollah,” Trump said.
“I suggested to Israel to let Syria take care of Hezbollah. Cause to be honest with you, I think they’d do a better job.” Days later, on the first day of US-Iran talks in Switzerland, Fox News’ Trey Yingst said that, during an interview, Trump had expressed disappointment that Israel can’t “put Hezbollah away” and said that he is “close to giving it to Syria” because he thinks al-Sharaa would be more precise.
The White House declined to comment and referred to Trump’s previous statements. Syrian officials scrambled to do damage control. In a speech in Damascus on June 13, al-Sharaa said, “There are people spreading rumours that Syria will intervene in Lebanon. This is not true. We are calling for a permanent end to the war and the strengthening of institutions, and for there to be economic ties and a calming of the situation in Lebanon.” In a June 21 interview with the Emirati network Al Mashhad, al-Sharaa said Trump’s remarks had been misunderstood.
Trump “spoke about Syria’s role in finding a safe and peaceful solution, but the statement was misinterpreted as if Syria were going to invade Lebanon tomorrow morning,” al-Sharaa said.
He said Syria had “presented our vision for a solution to the United States, which is to stop the war and address the negative effects on Lebanon and Syria, and to find different economic, political and social solutions.” (AP )
