Israel, Lebanon Stumped By Trump’s Move to Pit Syria Against Hezbollah

US President Donald Trump is again veering to the idea of pitting Syria to fight against Hezbollah, a move that has irked both Lebanon and Israel.

Recently, Trump had been wary of Israeli recklessness while he dealt with backroom maneuvers to end the Middle East crisis.

Israeli attacks in Lebanon and Palestine had irked Iran, which has linked a ceasefire in the region to an end to hostilities in the Middle East.

Tehran had gone to the extent of even temporarily halting technical discussions in response to Israeli bombardments in Lebanon.

President Donald Trump had vented his fury on Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu after Israeli forces struck Beirut just hours before the US and Iran were set to sign a deal to end their war.

Trump’s suggestion is that the battle-hardened and Islamist-led insurgents who overthrew Syria’s autocratic President Bashar Assad and formed a new government could be useful in eliminating the Hezbollah threat than the Israeli army, the Associated Press reported.

Syrian President Ahmad al-Sharaa has said that Trump’s comments were misconstrued and has shown reluctance to back the idea, but the US president is not giving up.

The seriousness of the White House proposal is a matter of debate, but the probability of a Syria-led invasion has irked Lebanon as well as Israel.

Israel views Syria’s al-Sharaa-led Islamist administration with suspicion, a stance which has led to it seizing control of a southern region in Syria after the new dispensation took over the reigns of power.

Israel is also wary of Turkey, which is an unapologetic backer of the Syrian regime. Israel and Turkey see a dominant influence in Syria as vital to their geopolitical interests.

Top officials of Israel’s security apparatus have held a meeting on the issue, according to reports.

During the G7 conclave in France earlier in June, Trump had made known his frustration with Israel’s protracted war with Hezbollah.

It has gone on for too long, he suggested, and “too many people are being killed.”

More than 4,000 have perished in Israeli strikes in Lebanon since Hezbollah joined the wider Iran war with an attack on Israel in March 2.

Israel claims its strikes target Hezbollah, but Trump was clearly not impressed.

“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.”

During the opening day of US-Iran talks in Switzerland, Trump had expressed disappointment in a Fox News interview, saying that Israel can’t “put Hezbollah away.” The US president said that he is “close to giving it to Syria” because he thinks al-Sharaa would be a better option to tackle the scenario.

Though US envoy to Syria, Tom Barrack, has denied reports that Washington had floated the idea of pitting Syria against Hezbollah, Trump has repeatedly aired the proposition since then.

Many in Lebanon also are nursing wounds of the Syrian occupation that began during the Lebanese civil war, which ended last year.