Israel Worries Syrian Action Against Hezbollah Could Create a New Lebanese Problem

President Donald Trump criticized Israel’s conduct in Lebanon, saying its approach is taking too long. Speaking about Hezbollah, he argued that the new Syrian president, Ahmed al-Sharaa, known as al-Julani, should be allowed to deal with the Shiite group, which serves as an Iranian proxy against Israel.

A senior security source said Hezbollah is terrified of the prospect of fighting al-Julani’s forces on the Lebanese-Syrian border. The group, which fought alongside Bashar al-Assad’s regime in Syria’s civil war, now fears a revenge-driven campaign tied to Sunni-Shiite religious tensions, with Sunnis viewing Shiites as heretics.

According to the source, Hezbollah spent the war, on advice from Iran’s Revolutionary Guards, planning not only for combat with the IDF, which can encircle it from several directions, but also for other scenarios, including an al-Julani incursion into Lebanon, seizure of territory in the Land of the Cedars, and massacres in Shiite villages similar to attempts against Druze communities in the Druze Mountain. He said such a scenario would reshape the region geopolitically, and Israel opposes it.

The article says al-Julani’s fighters and Hezbollah have already clashed repeatedly since Assad’s fall, mainly as Hezbollah was pushed out of Syria and prevented from smuggling weapons from Iraq through Syria into the Bekaa Valley. At one point, al-Julani’s army seized Hezbollah positions in Syria. Israeli control of Mount Hermon also helps monitor smuggling routes and restrict Hezbollah’s buildup, while Syria previously served as a strategic supply corridor and logistics rear for Hezbollah and Iran.

A military source warned that if the Americans let the new Syrian regime “deal with” Hezbollah, it could become a one-way move: Syrian forces may enter Lebanon to hit terror cells, but might not leave, creating another problem in Lebanon that the IDF would then have to confront.