US President Donald Trump urged Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu during a phone call last week to pull Israeli troops out of Syria and Lebanon, Axios reported on Tuesday.
Citing US and Israeli officials, the report noted Trump told Netanyahu that the Israeli military's presence in Syrian territory was creating tensions and could lead to further escalation.
"They don't want you there. You should redeploy," Trump told Netanyahu, according to a US official cited by Axios.
It also claimed that Trump also made a similar request regarding Lebanon, while Netanyahu argued that Israel needs security zones along its borders.
Axios said the call came on Thursday, a day after Trump met Syrian President Ahmed al Sharaa on the sidelines of the NATO summit in Türkiye, as the Trump administration continues efforts to advance a security arrangement between Israel and Syria.
Occupation without end
Israel has steadily expanded its military footprint inside Syrian territory since the fall of Bashar al Assad’s regime, seizing a buffer zone in the Golan Heights beyond the 1974 disengagement line and carrying out repeated incursions deeper into southern Syria under the pretext of preventing threats from armed groups.
Damascus and the UN have both said these moves go well beyond Israel's original ceasefire lines and amount to a fresh land grab under the cover of instability following Assad's ouster.
In Lebanon, Israel has similarly kept troops stationed at several points in the country's south, despite a ceasefire agreement that required a full Israeli withdrawal, repeatedly delaying its pullout and continuing near-daily strikes on Lebanese territory it claims target Hezbollah.
Beirut has accused Israel of using vague security justifications to stall on its ceasefire commitments in much the same way it has stalled on withdrawal commitments in Gaza, prolonging its military presence in three separate territories at once even as it faces mounting international pressure to retreat behind its own borders.
