# Donald Trump — "let Syria take care of Hezbollah" > [!quote] "let [[Syria]] take care of Hezbollah, 'cause to be honest with you, I think they do a better job of doing it." > — Donald Trump, G7 summit, France, June 16, 2026 ## Context At the G7 in France, Trump proposed that [[Ahmed al-Sharaa]]'s Syria — now governed by [[Hayat Tahrir al-Sham]] following Assad's fall — be left to handle [[Hezbollah]], framing the Syrian government as more effective than Israel at the task. The remark came alongside criticism of Israeli conduct and praise for al-Sharaa, and reflects Trump's broader effort to wind down U.S. and Israeli entanglement after the [[Iran War 2026]]. ## Why This Matters Outsourcing Hezbollah to a former al-Qaeda-affiliated leader now running Syria marks a striking realignment: a U.S. president floating reliance on HTS to police Iran's proxy. It signals that the post-war settlement is being improvised around partners of convenience rather than any coherent strategy, and that the [[Trump-Iran MOU 2026]] leaves the region's hard problems to be subcontracted out. ## See Also - [[Donald Trump]] - [[Iran War 2026]] - [[Ahmed al-Sharaa]] - [[Hezbollah]] - [[Hayat Tahrir al-Sham]] - [[Trump-Iran MOU 2026]]