Syrian President Ahmed al-Sharaa said on Sunday that Syria will not take part in a military intervention in Lebanon, despite comments by U.S. President Donald Trump suggesting Damascus could handle Hezbollah. In an interview published by the Lebanese daily Al-Akhbar, al-Sharaa said Trump’s remarks were misunderstood and insisted that Syria sees itself as part of the solution, not the problem.
“The president Trump spoke about Syria’s role in seeking a safe and calm solution, but the words were misread as if Syria would enter Lebanon tomorrow morning,” al-Sharaa said. He added that the answer in Lebanon cannot come through “wars, bombings and traditional means,” and that ending the conflict requires “creative solutions, not traditional approaches.”
Al-Sharaa said Syria had presented the United States, French President Emmanuel Macron and several regional states with an initiative aimed at ending the war in Lebanon, moving to arrangements that protect all communities in the country, and providing Syria with security guarantees. He said any initiative must pass through the Lebanese state and its legitimate institutions. Since ties between Damascus and Washington were renewed, he said, the Lebanese issue has come up repeatedly in contacts with the Americans, including his conversations with Trump.
He described Syria’s approach as starting with a ceasefire, then moving to a broad package of economic, political and social steps, plus renewed economic links and vital transport corridors between Syria and Lebanon. He said the plan also includes security arrangements that would account for Syrian and Lebanese concerns, and even “some of the Israeli concerns.” On a possible Lebanon-Israel agreement, he said stable peace would require the right conditions and asked what such a deal would mean if rocket fire resumed immediately. He also said dialogue with Hezbollah could be possible if it serves both Lebanese and Syrian interests, arguing that closing communication channels only increases conflict. Al-Sharaa added that Hezbollah operatives are deployed along the Syrian-Lebanese border, but said Syria does not want internal confrontation in Lebanon and sees Lebanon’s stability as directly tied to Syria’s own stability.
