Trump tells Netanyahu to be ‘more responsible with respect to Lebanon’

WASHINGTON, Jun 16: United States President Donald Trump has rebuked Israel over its military offensive in Lebanon in unusually critical comments during his visit to a G7 summit in France.

Trump said on Tuesday that he had a “great relationship” with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu but added the Israeli leader “has to be more responsible with respect to Lebanon”.

Israel had been fighting Hezbollah “too long and too many people are being killed”, Trump told reporters ahead of a bilateral meeting with Qatar’s Emir Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani, on the sidelines of the summit in Evian-les-Bains.

“You don’t have to knock down an apartment house every time you’re looking for somebody because there’s a lot of people in those apartment houses �" and they’re not all Hezbollah,” he said.

“I suggested to Israel to let Syria take care of Hezbollah because to be honest with you, I think they’d do a better job of doing it.”

Trump reacted angrily on Sunday after an Israeli attack on Beirut threatened to derail delicate negotiations with Iran, posting on his Truth Social platform that the attack “should not have happened, particularly on a special day when we are so close to a Peace Deal with Iran”.

On Tuesday he said he “didn’t like” Israel’s attack on Beirut “two hours” before the signing of the agreement with Iran.�"AL JAZEERA