File image.
United States President Donald Trump criticized Israel’s conduct in its fight against Hezbollah on June 16, arguing that Syria should take over the fight against the Iran-backed group in Lebanon.
In remarks at the G7 summit of global leaders in France, Trump said that the conflict between Israel and Hezbollah has gone on for too long and that suggests that Israel is killing too many noncombatants.
“Israel is fighting Hezbollah too long and too many people are being killed,” Trump said. “And 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, that I can tell you.”
“I’m not happy with the way Israel has handled themselves with Lebanon and with Hezbollah. They should have been able to do the job faster. 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,” he added.
Trump also repeated that he was upset about Israel’s strike on the Lebanese capital at the start of the week, shortly before the interim peace deal with Iran was announced.
“I didn’t like where, two hours before we’re signing the agreement, that there was an attack in Lebanon, in Beirut,” he said.
He referred to Ahmed al-Sharaa, the president of Syria, saying that he would more effectively lead the fight against Hezbollah.
“And I suggested to Israel to let Syria take care of Hezbollah,” Trump said. “Because to be honest with you, I think they’d do a better job of doing it.”
He said of Sharaa, “He’s very capable. And he’s been very good for me. He’s protected everything that I’ve asked for… And if Israel can’t do the job without killing everyone else, he’ll do the job. Syria will do the job.”
Hezbollah was a close ally to Syria’s former president, Bashar al-Assad, who was overthrown more than a year ago by a coalition of rebels led by Sharaa.
This is the second time in recent weeks that Trump has suggested that Syria should intervene in Lebanon against Hezbollah. In an interview with NBC, aired on June 8, he praised Sharaa and said he is willing and capable of helping deal with the group.
Responding to Trump’s earlier remarks, Sharaa outright denied that Syria is planning to intervene against Hezbollah in Lebanon.
“What is being circulated about Syria entering Lebanon is completely untrue,” Sharaa told a delegation from Damascus countryside, as cited by the SANA news agency on June 13.
On June 11, Lebanese President Joseph Aoun expressed confidence that Syria will not intervene, saying in remarks quoted by Lebanon ON that Sharaa possesses enough political responsibility to keep Damascus from becoming involved in Lebanon’s internal complexities and crises.
Around the same time it was rumored that Sharaa had turned down a personal invitation by Trump to the White House. The visit would have been the Syrian president’s second in under a year.
It’s worth noting that a cessation of hostilities in Lebanon is a part of the U.S. peace deal with Iran, which will likely view any Syrian intervention against Hezbollah as a violation.
Despite the risk, Trump appears to be keen on the idea, which would shift the blame for the war in Lebanon from the U.S. and Israel towards Syria.
And while Trump is attempting to present a Syrian intervention in Lebanon as some more humanitarian option, pushing an unorganized Sunni military into war against a Shia group in one of the Middle East’s most diverse countries is guaranteed to lead to a catastrophe.
Iran is also guaranteed to respond against Syria in case of such intervention, not just with missiles and drones, but also very possibly by ground via its allies in Iraq.
In short, a sectarian regional conflict could easily break out if Syria takes action against Hezbollah. This is exactly what the U.S. and Israel may be after after failing to take down the Islamic Republic directly. While Sharaa is well aware of the risk, and clearly attempting to avoid being pushed in this direction, he is certainly not in a position to say no to Trump if confronted with such a demand.
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jewlani, the deputy head of isis and throat-slitter-in-chief, with a ten million price on his head, is now the blue eyed boy of chumpo and the jooz. he is now expected to do the dirty work of the jooz like a good little goy whore. the jooz are getting their butts kicked again in south lebanon.
”do the dirty job, my islamist bi$#%” donnie.
well… well… well… the first honest statement made by 0range caligula “ever”… and that proves or reinforces unequivocally why isis/al nusra/al qaeda has never attacked i$rael because they work for and on behalf of the u.$. government since before 911!… but ahmed al-sharaa is all about self-preservation… and he’s weighing pro and con of whether on not his head will be on a plate before too long if he doesn’t cut and run to cyprus soon.