Trump Suggests Syria Fight Hezbollah If Israel Cannot

United States President Donald Trump has revealed that he suggested to Israel that Syria should fight the Iran-backed Hezbollah group, because Israeli military operations in Lebanon have caused too many casualties. Trump, as reported by AFP on Wednesday (17/6/2026), believes Syrian President Ahmed al-Sharaa will be able to “do the job” — fighting Hezbollah — if Israel is unable to. The US President even offered praise for al-Sharaa, whom he said has done “a fantastic job”. “I suggested to Israel to let Syria handle Hezbollah because, frankly, I think they will do a better job,” Trump said while speaking at the G7 summit in France on Tuesday (16/6) local time. “If Israel cannot do the job (fighting Hezbollah) without killing everyone, then he (al-Sharaa) will do the job. Syria will do the job,” he remarked. Trump also stressed that al-Sharaa, a former al-Qaeda member who took power in Syria after the fall of dictator Bashar al-Assad’s regime, “is not a good person”. However, Trump also praised him for uniting Syria after nearly 14 years of civil war. According to Trump, al-Sharaa is “very good” at handling Hezbollah and “does not like them”. At the G7 forum, Trump launched unusually harsh criticism against Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. The US President openly called on Netanyahu to be “more responsible, respectfully, towards Lebanon”. “I am not happy with the way Israel has handled Lebanon and Hezbollah. They should have been able to finish the job faster,” Trump said. The US President also criticised Israel’s excessive use of military force in fighting Hezbollah. He said Israel has been “fighting Hezbollah for too long and too many people have been killed”. “You do not need to knock down an apartment building every time you are looking for someone, because there are a lot of people in those apartment buildings — and not all of them are Hezbollah members,” Trump stated in his criticism of Netanyahu.