U.S. President Donald Trump recently made a direct plea to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu during a phone call, urging him to begin pulling Israeli troops out of Syria and Lebanon to prevent further escalation in the region, according to U.S. and Israeli officials who spoke to Axios on Thursday.
If Trump wants to launch another major strike on Iran, he needs to keep Israel in check first.
A U.S. official said Trump told Netanyahu that the presence of Israeli forces in Syrian territory is stoking tensions and could lead to a dangerous escalation. “They don’t want you to stay there. You should redeploy your forces,” the official quoted Trump as saying. The same logic applies to Lebanon, the official added.
According to reports, Trump’s demand has undoubtedly ramped up the pressure on Netanyahu. Israeli forces are currently occupying large areas of southern Lebanon and southern Syria, and some senior members of the Israeli government are pushing for indefinite control over these territories, even advocating for the establishment of Jewish settlements there.
The report also noted that the Israeli Prime Minister’s Office issued a statement on July 9, saying that Netanyahu spoke with Trump that evening and “emphasized the need to establish security zones along Israel’s borders.”
The White House declined to comment but did not deny the claims. A U.S. official told Axios, “President Trump has a close relationship with Prime Minister Netanyahu, and Israel has always been a key ally of the United States.”
The report further mentioned that just a day before the call, Trump met with Syrian Transitional President Ahmad al-Sharaa during the NATO summit. The Trump administration has been trying for months to broker a new security agreement between Israel and Syria, but ultimately concluded that Netanyahu is not willing to make the concessions Washington expects.