The Trump administration was reportedly not happy with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s decision to bomb Syria.
Israel launched strikes on Syria on July 15 as reports of violence and indiscriminate massacres between Bedouin tribes and the Druze ethno-religious minority in the south circulated, prompting the new Syrian government to intervene. The U.S. then promptly requested Israel cease the strikes, with Trump administration officials reportedly incensed that Netanyahu “acted like a madman” in potentially destabilizing a new government much more amenable to diplomacy than the previous Bashar al-Assad regime, one U.S. official told Axios.
“The president enjoys a good working relationship with prime minister Bibi Netanyahu and stays in frequent communication with him,” Leavitt told reporters Monday. “He was caught off guard by the bombing in Syria and the bombing of the Catholic church in Gaza … and in both cases, the president quickly called the prime minister to rectify these situations.”
The Trump administration has put considerable effort into restoring amenable ties with Syria, dropping sanctions on the nation on June 30 while courting its leaders to possibly join the Abraham Accords, which would potentially normalize Syrian-Israeli ties if the new government decided to join.
Syria’s new leader, interim president Ahmed al-Sharaa, was a former member of al-Qaeda who defected due to ideological differences in 2017 to form Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS), the militant organization that ultimately took control of Damascus in December 2024. Al-Sharaa instituted a fragile ceasefire between government forces and the Druze on July 19, but continued tensions remain a problem.
Militants linked to the new Syrian government have also been implicated in massacres against the Alawite minority group in northern Syria, with various government-affiliated rebels engaging in hundreds of revenge killings.
President Donald Trump said that Israel’s strikes “pushed the country into a dangerous phase that poses a threat to its stability,” according to The New York Times. Secretary of State Marco Rubio has warned that the current government could collapse quickly due to internal divisions and other pressures.
The State Department did not respond to the Daily Caller News Foundation’s request for comment.
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