Trump Says He Suggested Israel Let Syria Handle Hezbollah: "They’d Do It Better"

President Donald Trump spoke with reporters today (Tuesday) and addressed the memorandum of understanding with Iran, which will be formally signed at a ceremony in Switzerland this coming Friday. The American president said the agreement is "fair and good," adding: "Regime change in Iran was never a goal, but it’s happening, now they are behaving rationally. The agreement is now moving to the second stage, which I believe will actually be easier."

According to him, he agreed to sign the memorandum of understanding after Iran accepted his demand that they would not develop nuclear weapons or acquire them. Trump said: "It took a few more days of negotiations. The agreement states that they will not develop, not acquire, not buy, and not obtain in any other way nuclear weapons. They will not get nuclear weapons. And if they do - all hell will come down on them. And they won’t do it."

Trump was asked about his expectations of Israel, and whether the agreement with Iran would survive if the IDF attacks in Lebanon, and he replied: "Without me, there would be no Israel. Bibi needs to be more responsible in Lebanon. I’m not happy with the way Israel has dealt with Lebanon. I see this as the smaller war, Iran was the bigger story. But we have that same small problem that keeps coming up again and again - and that is Hezbollah".

"Israel has been fighting Hezbollah for far too long, and too many people are being killed. You don’t have to bring down a residential building every time you’re looking for someone, because there are a lot of people in those buildings, and not all of them are Hezbollah members, I can tell you that. I suggested to Israel that it let Syria deal with Hezbollah, because honestly, I think they’d do it better".

That drew a response from the Syrian government’s office. The statement said: "We have no intention of intervening in what is happening in Lebanon."

It should be noted that earlier today, Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi said that "the immediate and final end of the war is on all fronts, including Lebanon, and the formal implementation of the memorandum of understanding will begin on Friday. Any Israeli military attack against Lebanon from this point forward will constitute a violation of the memorandum of understanding with the U.S. Iran sees ending the war in Lebanon as an obligation."