Trump pressures Netanyahu to withdraw from Syria, Lebanon

• Netanyahu argued security zones remain necessary to prevent future cross-border threats.
• The request followed Trump's meeting with Syrian President Ahmad al-Sharaa at the NATO summit.
• 'Israeli' forces have yet to withdraw from pilot zones in southern Lebanon despite existing framework agreements.

US President Donald Trump has directly intervened in 'Israel's' northern military strategy, telling 'Israeli' Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu during a private phone call that 'Israeli' forces should begin pulling out of Syrian territory and urging a parallel drawdown in Lebanon.

The high-stakes call adds substantial friction to Washington-Tel Aviv relations, arriving just three months ahead of a critical 'Israeli' election that poses an existential threat to Netanyahu's political survival and personal freedom.

Despite the pressure, the 'Israeli' leader remains highly unlikely to authorize any immediate or significant troop rollbacks from occupied border zones.

White House warning

According to US and 'Israeli' officials familiar with the discussion, Trump warned Netanyahu that keeping active military units stationed deep within Syrian and Lebanese territory is actively aggravating regional actors and could ignite a broader, uncontrollable escalation.

"They don't want you there. You should redeploy," Trump told Netanyahu bluntly during the call, applying the same reasoning to both frontlines.

Netanyahu's office pushed back against the assessment, issuing a formal statement confirming that the prime minister countered Trump's demands by emphasizing the absolute necessity of maintaining robust security zones directly along 'Israel's' volatile borders to guarantee domestic safety.

Syrian axis 

The timing of Trump's telephone intervention was not coincidental.

It occurred just one day after the American president held a bilateral meeting with Syrian President Ahmad al-Sharaa on the sidelines of the NATO summit in Turkey.

The Trump administration has spent months attempting to broker a comprehensive security accord between 'Israel' and Syria.

US officials privately concluded that the primary bottleneck is Netanyahu's refusal to grant major territorial concessions, specifically a phased withdrawal of the 'Israeli' military from land occupied since the collapse of the Assad regime in December 2024.

The military occupation has also triggered a growing domestic backlash inside Syria.

In recent weeks, multiple anti-occupation protests have erupted across southern Syria, resulting in direct, violent clashes between local Syrian citizens and frontline 'Israeli' soldiers.

Stalemate over Lebanese pilot zones

The diplomatic pressure coincides with a separate, fragile negotiation tracking 'Israel's' presence in Lebanon.

US mediators recently met with 'Israeli' and Lebanese diplomats in Rome to hammer out the operational logistics of a previously signed bilateral framework agreement.

Under that accord, 'Israel' committed to withdrawing its military forces entirely from two specific "pilot zones" in southern Lebanon, allowing the official Lebanese military to step in and assume local security command.

However, the 'Israeli' military has yet to execute the agreed-upon redeployments.

'Israeli' defense officials claim they must first independently verify that these initial pilot zones are totally cleared of hidden Hezbollah weapons caches and active military infrastructure.

In contrast, the Lebanese government has rejected Tel Aviv's unilateral timeline, demanding that the US military act as the sole objective arbiter of compliance.

While senior members of Netanyahu's coalition continue to advocate for indefinite control and even the eventual establishment of Jewish settlements in these borderlands, Washington's patience appears to be wearing thin.

While the White House declined to officially comment, a US official defended the administration's stance, reiterating that while "Israel has always been a great ally," President Trump remains a "fighter for peace" determined to stabilize the region.