{"id":166165,"date":"2026-06-18T11:36:09","date_gmt":"2026-06-18T11:36:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/166165\/"},"modified":"2026-06-18T11:36:09","modified_gmt":"2026-06-18T11:36:09","slug":"why-trump-wants-syria-to-take-care-of-hezbollah-amid-us-iran-ceasefire","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/166165\/","title":{"rendered":"Why Trump Wants Syria to \u2018Take Care of Hezbollah\u2019 Amid US-Iran Ceasefire"},"content":{"rendered":"

At the recently concluded G7 Summit in France, US President Donald Trump<\/a> said that Syria should \u201ctake care of Hezbollah\u201d, claiming that Damascus could handle the Iran-backed Lebanese group better than Israel.<\/p>\n

The comments came<\/a> as the text of the US-Iran ceasefire deal (formally the Memorandum of Understanding) was made public on Thursday (June 18). The very first of the 14 points stated that \u201cThe United States of America and the Islamic Republic of Iran and their allies in the current war by signing this MOU, declare the immediate and permanent termination of military operations on all fronts, including in Lebanon\u2026\u201d<\/p>\n

Trump also expressed frustration at the deaths of Lebanese civilians due to Israeli strikes, saying, \u201cIsrael has been fighting Hezbollah too long\u2026 and you don\u2019t have to knock down an apartment house every time you\u2019re looking for somebody. Because there are a lot of people in those apartment houses and they are not all Hezbollah, that I can tell you.\u201d<\/p>\n

For decades, Syria and Hezbollah were close allies linked through Iran. So, why has Trump sought Syria\u2019s help now? It has to do with not only Israeli action, but also the US\u2019s changing relationship with Syria.<\/p>\n

What is the Syria-Hezbollah relationship?<\/p>\n

To understand the significance of Trump\u2019s remarks, it is necessary to look at the historical relationship between Syria and Hezbollah.<\/p>\n

Hezbollah, meaning \u201cThe Party of God\u201d, emerged in Lebanon in 1982 during the Lebanese Civil War and the Israeli invasion of Lebanon. Backed by Iran and the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), who funded and trained its budding militia owing to their common anti-US, anti-Israel stance, the group became one of the most politically and militarily influential non-state actors in West Asia.<\/p>\n

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Syria borders Lebanon to the west. For decades, Syria served as Hezbollah\u2019s most important ally by providing the geographic, military and political support the group needed for growing its influence in the region.<\/p>\n

According to a report by the US Department of State from 2006, under former President Bashar al-Assad, Damascus maintained close ties with Tehran and acted as a logistical corridor connecting Iran to Hezbollah. Weapons, funding, and supplies destined for Hezbollah often moved through Syrian territory, as stated by the think tank Council on Foreign Relations (CFR).<\/p>\n

The relationship strengthened during the Syrian Civil War that began in the 2010s. As Syria faced an existential threat from rebel groups, including some backed by the US, Hezbollah deployed thousands of fighters in support of Syrian government forces to help Assad regain control. According to the BBC, in 2013, the group\u2019s former head, Sheikh Hassan Nasrallah, declared: \u201cSyria has real friends who will not let it fall to the US, Israel or Islamic radicals.\u201d<\/p>\n

What explains Trump\u2019s comments?<\/p>\n

The answer lies in the new Syrian leadership.<\/p>\n

The Syrian Civil War came to an end in December 2024, when the Ahmed al-Sharaa-led group Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) successfully took control of vast parts of Syria. Since then, with al-Sharaa as President, Syria has been trying to distance itself from Iran\u2019s network and gain international legitimacy after decades of intertwined connections with Hezbollah and Iran.<\/p>\n

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There are clear difficulties in doing so, such as the leader\u2019s own past role as a former al-Qaeda commander. His attempts at portraying himself as a leader focused on rebuilding Syria and making the nation a serious international player, and in seeking out the US as an ally, come against this backdrop.<\/p>\n

Despite its complicated history with Syria, for Washington, this shift presents an opportunity. Trump has called al-Sharaa a \u201ctough guy\u201d who was \u201cworking very hard\u201d to secure the HTS\u2019s dominance within the country, where some pockets are still resisting against the new regime. If Syria isolates itself from Iran, it could potentially weaken Hezbollah\u2019s access to logistical networks that once passed through Syrian territory.<\/p>\n

Seen in this context, Trump\u2019s remarks are more about reshaping regional alignments in West Asia. By urging Syria to \u201ctake care of Hezbollah\u201d, he appears to be signalling support for Damascus to act independently and contribute to limiting Hezbollah\u2019s influence, thereby weakening Iran.<\/p>\n

The other major factor driving Trump to criticise Israel is that its military campaign comes at a time when attempts at a peace deal are being made. With disruptions in oil and gas supply also contributing to inflation in the US, ahead of mid-term elections in November, there are real concerns of an already unpopular war affecting electoral outcomes for Trump.<\/p>\n

The author is an intern with The Indian Express<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"At the recently concluded G7 Summit in France, US President Donald Trump said that Syria should \u201ctake care…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":166166,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[30],"tags":[51901,51904,24047,51906,51902,5157,95,51900,51905,51903,51899,4833,51898,19604,7439],"class_list":["post-166165","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-syria","tag-ahmed-al-sharaa-syria","tag-bashar-al-assad-hezbollah-ties","tag-express-explained","tag-hezbollah-explained","tag-hezbollah-iran-alliance","tag-israel-hezbollah-conflict","tag-syria","tag-syria-hezbollah-relationship","tag-syria-iran-influence","tag-syria-new-leadership","tag-trump-hezbollah-remarks","tag-trump-middle-east-policy","tag-trump-syria-hezbollah-comments","tag-us-iran-ceasefire-deal","tag-west-asia-geopolitics"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@iran\/116770909853369421","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/166165","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=166165"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/166165\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/166166"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=166165"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=166165"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=166165"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}