“Syria can do the job” of fighting Hezbollah better than Israel, Donald Trump has said, in a remarkable rebuke of Tel Aviv’s war in Lebanon and its mounting civilian toll.
Speaking ahead of a bilateral meeting with Qatar’s Emir Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani at the G7 summit in Evian, Trump said he was “not happy” with Israel’s handling of Lebanon and warned that its offensive was undermining Washington’s efforts to secure a wider regional deal with Iran.
“I’m not happy with the way Israel has handled themselves with Lebanon and with Hezbollah,” Trump said. “It just goes on forever, and when that happens, it throws a negative light on the big deal, and that’s the deal with Iran.”
“You don’t have to knock down an apartment house every time you’re looking for somebody,” he added, in one of his sharpest public criticisms yet of Israel’s military tactics.
Trump then suggested that Syrian President Ahmed Al-Sharaa, who took power after the overthrow of Bashar Al-Assad’s regime in 2024, should be allowed to confront Hezbollah instead.
