Trump renews call for Syria to intervene in Lebanon against Hezbollah
United States President Donald Trump has renewed a call for Syria to intervene in Lebanon against Hezbollah, repeating the suggestion while hosting Lebanese President Joseph Aoun at the White House on Tuesday. The proposal has drawn criticism from analysts and has also been played down by US Secretary of State Marco Rubio. The issue comes as Lebanon remains under pressure to disarm the Iran-backed group.
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Trump said Syria, under President Ahmed al-Sharaa, could help by doing something with Hezbollah and suggested such a move would be effective. He said al-Sharaa would like to come in and added that he had been thinking about the idea. Rubio later told reporters that the Syrian authorities were not focused on Hezbollah, but on their own internal challenges and the task of building a nation state.
The comments have highlighted a sensitive regional question for Syria's new authorities. Hezbollah was a key ally of former Syrian President Bashar al-Assad before he was removed in 2024 by fighters led by al-Sharaa. A political and security researcher quoted in the report said a military intervention in Lebanon to help disarm Hezbollah would be strategically counterproductive for Damascus.
The debate matters because it touches on the balance of power between Lebanon, Syria and Hezbollah at a time of continued external pressure on Beirut. Any Syrian role in Lebanon would carry historical weight, given that Syrian troops first entered Lebanon in 1976 during the Lebanese Civil War. Syria then occupied most of Lebanon for nearly 30 years before withdrawing in 2005 after widespread protests.
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That history makes the current proposal especially sensitive for both Lebanese and Syrian officials. The report says Syria's new authorities have previously dismissed the idea, suggesting they may see it as a threat to domestic security and to efforts to establish a stable relationship with the Lebanese state. Analysts also warned that Hezbollah could portray any Syrian military action as foreign aggression and use it to strengthen its own narrative.
What remains unclear is whether Washington will continue to press the idea or whether it will remain a rhetorical position. It is also not clear whether Beirut or Damascus will respond publicly beyond the comments already reported. For now, the main issue to watch is whether the proposal affects Lebanon-Syria relations or the wider campaign to disarm Hezbollah.
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