Newsweek34%
Syria Is Caught Between Trump and His Two Best Friends in the Middle East 60%
By Tom O'Connor52%
6/24/2026, 9:09:38 PM
BS Summary: This article contains 30 faulty reasoning types, including Post Hoc (False Cause), Appeal to Authority, and Ambiguity (Equivocation), with Negativity Bias as the most egregious example at 15.2% saturation with 242 hits. Analysis detected 2,453 faulty-reasoning hits from 1,594 analyzed words, generating a BS Score of 56.1% and a BS Rank of 60% (8,553 of 21,169 articles). This article is worse (more manipulative) than 59.60% of the article peer group.
As the United States and Iran settle into an uneasy truce, one of the White House's newest partners in the Middle East finds himself caught between President Donald Trump's rhetoric and a deepening rivalry between two of the U.S.'s oldest regional allies.
Long rocked by civil war until the insurgent blitz that brought President Ahmad al-Sharaa to power in December 2024, Syria has since largely avoided becoming further enmeshed in regional turmoil.
Sharaa has instead strove toward rebuilding and restabilizing at home in the wake of Iran-aligned Syrian President Bashar al-Assad's ousting.
Now, that position is under more pressure than ever.
On one side, Sharaa faces mounting tensions between Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who has sought to undermine the Syrian leader's rule since his first day, and Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, Sharaa's top regional supporter, who helped foster the military and political conditions to consolidate his leadership.
On the other hand, Trump has increasingly signaled a desire to cash in on the U.S.' pivot toward backing Sharaa, teasing a direct role for Syria in taking on the task of tackling Iran's Hezbollah ally in Lebanon.
Syrian diplomat Bassam Barabandi argued that the majority of Syrians had no love for Hezbollah, given the group's stalwart support for Assad throughout the civil war.
Yet he warned that the country had little desire or capacity to take on a fight that posed far more risks than rewards.
"We have nothing to do with this fight," Barabandi told Newsweek.
"We want Lebanon to be stable.
We need Syria to be stable.
We have good relations with our neighbors.
We have peace or disengagement with Israel, but that doesn't mean we have to be military allies with one group against one group, especially Israel, which is occupying Syria and doesn't want to withdraw from Syria."
"We don't want to go into that puzzle," Barabandi said.
The Syria-Lebanon Connection
Trump first brought up Damascus' possible involvement in Lebanon during a June 5 interview with NBC, when he said he may "recommend Syria" in supporting "a more surgical attack on Hezbollah" than the campaign being waged by Israel.
Trump went on to praise Sharaa as a "very good leader" who has "really done a good job in a short period of time."
The comments underscore the significant shift in U.S. policy over the past year and a half since Sharaa, then a U.S.-designated terrorist, toppled Assad.
The former Al-Qaeda-tied militant, now promising a more inclusive and peaceful future for his country, has twice met Trump, even being received at the White House last November.
Then, a fresh ceasefire between Israel and Hamas still bore hopes for the first peace to be achieved since the war in Gaza sparked regional confrontation in October 2023.
Escalation returned, however, when the U.S. and Israel launched a joint war against Iran in February, resulting in a U.S.-Iran memorandum of understanding signed last week that calls for a 60-day cessation of hostilities on all fronts, including in Lebanon.
Trump has repeatedly issued criticisms regarding civilian casualties in Israel's campaign against Hezbollah and has ramped up suggestions that Syria may serve as a better candidate to tackle the group.
His latest comments came Sunday as Trump told Fox News that he was "disappointed Israel can’t put Hezbollah away" and argued Israel "can't do anything without knocking buildings down."
He said he was "close to giving it to Syria."
Sharaa has sought to deflect the suggestion that his country would take a military approach.
He told the Al-Mashhad news outlet in an interview aired Sunday that Trump "spoke about Syria’s role in seeking a safe and peaceful solution," but his words "were misunderstood" to suggest that "Syria would enter Lebanon tomorrow morning."
He proposed "a different approach," one rooted in "restoring support for the Lebanese state, strengthening its institutions, and seeking a solution that everyone can believe in."
Barabandi, for his part, described Sharaa's strategy as trying to strike a "balance between what the United States is asking, what President Trump is asking, and what can he do, what can he offer."
"He doesn't want to go into situations where he says, 'I will do this,' and he couldn't do it," Barabandi said.
"He cannot afford to lose that confidence of Trump."
He also recalled a complex, intertwined history weighing on the interests of Syria and Lebanon, where the prospect of Syrian involvement in the country's internal affairs at any level continues to evoke deep concerns.
Under the Assad dynasty's Ba'athist leadership, Syria played a major role in Lebanon's 1975-1990 multi-sided civil war and later imposed a dominating presence over the country from the end of the conflict until the 2005 Cedar Revolution.
Syria's own 2011-2024 civil war also had a major impact in Lebanon as Hezbollah aided Assad against rebels and jihadis, including the Islamic State militant group (ISIS), which managed to establish a foothold in Lebanon.
The lingering Syrian refugee presence, Hezbollah's intervention against Israel in the Gaza and Iran wars, along with new waves of displacement due to Israeli strikes against Lebanon, have all exacerbated fears over new sectarian tensions.
James Jeffrey, a former U.S. special representative to Syria and special envoy in the fight against ISIS, cautioned that it was in Syria's interest to remain out of the fray when it came to the current strife in Lebanon.
"Syria has to remain neutral," Jeffrey told Newsweek.
"Intervention in Lebanon given the history of Syrian intervention there until 2005 would ignite a firestorm uniting all Lebanese behind Hezbollah and undercutting US policy."
"It would also be seen by Israel very negatively," Jeffrey said.
"But Syria's first priority is economic recovery, and it needs the U.S.
So as long as President Trump touts this absurd idea, the Syrians will be demure in rejecting it."
Where Israel and Turkey Come into Play
Israel's opposition to Sharaa is not limited to a potential role in Lebanon.
Netanyahu has repeatedly cast doubt on the Syrian leader's claims to pursue a peaceful outlook.
Just days after Assad's downfall, Netanyahu ordered Israel's largest-ever bombing campaign against Syria alongside a ground incursion seizing further territory beyond the Golan Heights region occupied since 1967.
Israel continued to strike Syria under the pretext of aiding Druze communities engaged in deadly clashes with tribal fighters and Syrian security forces in the southwest.
Trump has come to Sharaa's aid on several occasions, publicly expressing dismay at Israeli operations in Syria.
The campaign has persisted, however, with new strikes conducted as recently as March.
The attacks have garnered an even stronger reaction from the U.S.'s NATO ally in the Middle East.
Erdogan warned earlier this month that Israel's strikes in Lebanon and Syria now pose a direct threat to Turkey, which members of Netanyahu's ruling right-wing Likud party have likened to emerging as a greater threat than Iran.
Sharaa has thus far managed to keep out of the crosshairs.
He has even opened a quiet dialogue with Israel in the interest of de-escalation, while shoring up ties with Turkey.
But the balancing act may only last so long.
"The Sharaa-led government is trying to be everything to everyone and the reality is that Netanyahu and his coalition partners want to create the conditions for Sharaa to fall from power," Nicholas Heras, the senior director for the Strategy and Programs Unit of the New Lines Institute's Academic Division, told Newsweek.
"Sharaa needs to maintain a delicate diplomatic dance to keep the United States as a restraining force on Netanyahu, to the greatest extent possible," Heras said.
"Sharaa also needs Turkey to continue to coup-proof his regime because his partnership with the U.S. to keep Israel mostly at bay is driving anxiety and animosity within the ranks of the Salafist fighters who helped propel him to power."
The most serious risk, according to Heras, would be the prospect of a dedicated Israeli operation that could undermine Sharaa's nascent reconstruction efforts and consolidation of power, at an auspicious time for Netanyahu's political position.
"The Israeli Druze community is a swing vote in Israel's upcoming election cycle, and Netanyahu wants those votes," Heras said.
"It is a distinct possibility that Netanyahu times a Sharaa-shaking Israeli military campaign to serve the interests of the restive Syrian Druze to win Israeli Druze votes.
Sharaa currently does not have a defense against that."
Frederic Hof, a senior fellow at Bard College's Center for Civic Engagement who previously served as U.S. ambassador and special adviser for transition in Syria, argued that Sharaa would likely prioritize efforts "to stay on the good sides of Donald Trump and Recep Tayyip Erdogan."
"He sees the former as potentially reversing Israeli territorial and political intervention in Syria, and the latter as a stabilizing influence encouraging Gulf States to invest in Syria’s reconstruction," Hof, who has firsthand experience in conducting back-channel mediation between Israel and Syria, told Newsweek.
At the same time, Hof also recognized that "Netanyahu has a domestic political interest in keeping things stirred up," even if Sharaa "will try to best to avoid provoking Israel in any way."
"Perhaps the main risk faced by Syria at this point would involve a combination of President Trump losing interest in Syria and PM Netanyahu prevailing electorally and maintaining his current policy, one which regards Syria under current management as a terrorist threat and as hostile to Syrian Druze."
"Again, Sharaa will do what he can to avoid provoking Israel in the hope that more reasonable leadership will emerge later this year," he added.
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