United States President Donald Trump has rebuked Israel over its military offensive in Lebanon in unusually critical comments during his visit to a G7 summit in France.
Trump said on Tuesday that he had a “great relationship” with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu but added the Israeli leader “has to be more responsible with respect to Lebanon”.
Israel had been fighting Hezbollah “too long and too many people are being killed”, Trump told reporters ahead of a bilateral meeting with Qatar’s Emir Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani, on the sidelines of the summit in Evian-les-Bains.
“You don’t have to knock down an apartment house every time you’re looking for somebody because there’s a lot of people in those apartment houses – and they’re not all Hezbollah,” he said.
“I suggested to Israel to let Syria take care of Hezbollah because to be honest with you, I think they’d do a better job of doing it.”
Trump reacted angrily on Sunday after an Israeli attack on Beirut threatened to derail delicate negotiations with Iran, posting on his Truth Social platform that the attack “should not have happened, particularly on a special day when we are so close to a Peace Deal with Iran”.
On Tuesday he said he “didn’t like” Israel’s attack on Beirut “two hours” before the signing of the agreement with Iran.
“I let them know that,” he said. “I didn’t like that, not at all.”
Asked whether the US-Iran deal can survive even if Israel launches more attacks in Lebanon, Trump said: “It can.”
“I consider that the minor war,” he said. “Iran’s the big one, but we have that little pinprick out there that constantly rears its head and that’s Hezbollah.”
Trump warned Iran that “all hell will rain down” if it tries to get a nuclear weapon, saying the ceasefire deal would ensure the country “can’t have a nuclear weapon” or “they get blown up”.
“This deal is a wall to a nuclear weapon,” Trump said.
“The only thing that really ?matters to me is Iran will never have a nuclear weapon, and it says it ?loud and clear.”
Iranian officials have repeatedly said over the years that Iran has no plans to develop nuclear weapons and its nuclear activities remain focused on peaceful energy.
Trump said he thinks Iran “has rational leadership now”, and the leaders who were “totally irrational” are “now gone”, after US and Israeli attacks killed numerous Iranian officials early in the war.The memorandum of understanding between the US and Iran is due to be formally signed in Geneva on Friday, after which the two sides will have 60 days to negotiate a final agreement.
Trump said the second phase of negotiations should “be actually easier”.
