Trump told Netanyahu to redeploy Israeli forces from Syria, Lebanon

Israel says its military presence in southern Syria and southern Lebanon is necessary to prevent another invasion similar to the Oct. 7 attack.

By Vered Weiss, World Israel News

President Donald Trump urged Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to begin pulling Israeli forces back from Syrian territory and pressed for further redeployments in Lebanon during a phone call Thursday, U.S. and Israeli officials said, according to Axios.

Trump told Netanyahu that Israel’s military presence inside Syria was creating friction and risked further escalation, the source said.

“They don’t want you there. You should redeploy,” Trump told Netanyahu, according to the official, who said the president delivered a similar message regarding Lebanon.

Netanyahu raised Israel’s security concerns during the conversation.

“The prime minister, on his part, raised the need for security zones along Israel’s borders,” the Israeli prime minister’s office said in a statement.

The call came one day after Trump met Syrian President Ahmad al-Sharaa on the sidelines of the NATO summit in Turkey.

The Trump administration has spent months seeking a new Israeli-Syrian security agreement.

U.S. officials said Washington ultimately concluded that Netanyahu was unwilling to make the concessions it sought, including a gradual IDF withdrawal from Syrian territory occupied following the collapse of the Assad regime in December 2024.

Israel says its military presence in southern Syria and southern Lebanon is necessary to prevent another invasion similar to the Oct. 7 attack.

Senior Israeli government officials support maintaining control of the areas indefinitely, while some have called for establishing Jewish settlements there.

Several recent protests against the IDF presence in southern Syria have led to clashes between Syrian citizens and Israeli soldiers.

Separately, U.S. mediators met Israeli and Lebanese diplomats in Rome on Tuesday to discuss a framework agreement signed several weeks ago.

Under the agreement, Israel committed to withdraw from two “pilot zones” in southern Lebanon and permit the Lebanese military to deploy there. The IDF has not yet redeployed from either area.

Lebanon is seeking a timetable for additional Israeli withdrawals. Israeli officials say the IDF wants to confirm that the pilot zones are free of Hezbollah weapons and military infrastructure before advancing to other areas, while Lebanese officials argue that the U.S. should make that determination.

The White House declined to comment but did not deny the account.

“President Trump has a strong relationship with Prime Minister Netanyahu, and Israel has always been a great ally to the United States. There has been no greater friend to Israel and a fighter for peace than President Trump,” a U.S. official told Axios.