BEIRUT: 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.

U.S. President Donald Trump's repeated suggestions that Syria's new leader, Ahmad Sharaa, can better curb Iran-backed Hezbollah than Israel have alarmed Lebanon and Syria.

Talks of a Syrian role in Lebanon revive memories of decades of troubled relations and military occupation