Donald Trump calls for Israeli military withdrawal from Lebanon and Syria

In a recent interview with Fox News, U.S. President Donald Trump expressed his desire for Israel to withdraw its military forces from southern Lebanon to facilitate regional de-escalation and shift strategic focus toward Iran. Parallel reports from Axios indicate that President Trump communicated a similar request to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu during a phone call held on Thursday, July 9, 2026. The U.S. president further suggested that the new Syrian leader, Ahmed al-Sharaa, should take responsibility for addressing Hezbollah, suggesting that his methods might be more precise than those currently employed by Israel. This suggestion comes despite al-Sharaa's previous affiliation with a Syrian organization linked to Al-Qaeda. Notably, the United States recently removed Syria from its state-sponsored terrorism list for the first time since 1979. While Trump publicly frames the move as a way to avoid infrastructure damage, the diplomatic implications of delegating security responsibilities to the Syrian leadership remain a subject of international scrutiny.