Trump Floats Syrian Role Against Hezbollah, Raising Alarms.

President Donald Trump has shocked many in the region by pushing an alternative: let Syria fight the Iran-backed militant group instead. In a photo released by the Syrian Presidency press office, Trump shakes hands with Syria’s President Ahmad al-Sharaa at the White House in Washington on Monday, Nov. 10,2025, following a meeting. Al-Sharaa waves as he greets supporters outside the White House.

The White House has soured on Israel’s war with Hezbollah in Lebanon. Trump has suggested that the battle-hardened and Islamist-led insurgents who overthrew Syria’s autocratic President Bashar Assad a year and a half ago and formed a new government would do a better job of rooting out Hezbollah than the Israeli army.

It remains unclear how serious the White House is about the proposal. The prospect of a Syrian invasion has raised alarms in Lebanon and in Israel, which regards al-Sharaa’s Islamist-led government with suspicion and has seized control of a strip of southern Syria since he took power.

Top Israeli security officials convened a meeting on the subject on Wednesday, according to an official who spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak to the media. Syria has also become the site of rising tensions between Israel and Turkey, a main backer of al-Sharaa’s government, with each seeking to limit the other’s influence in the neighboring country.

But the new leaders in Damascus have said since taking power in December 2024 that they are focused on rebuilding the country, are not seeking to settle scores, and want to remain outside any regional conflict. Syrian officials scrambled to contain the fallout.

Israel says its strikes target Hezbollah and that it takes measures to protect civilians. The White House declined to comment and referred to Trump’s previous statements.