U.S. President Donald Trump said Tuesday that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu must be "more responsible" on Lebanon and criticized the scale of Israeli military operations against the Iran-backed group, Hezbollah.
Speaking to reporters in France, where he is attending G-7 meetings, Trump said, "I've had a great relationship with Bibi, but now Bibi has to be more responsible with respect to Lebanon."
"I would say, of all countries, they've been treated the worst, and they can't defend themselves," Trump said of Lebanon. "And they have Hezbollah, which is a problem for them, so no, I'm not happy with the way Israel has handled themselves with Lebanon and with Hezbollah."
Trump also underscored U.S. support for Israel. "Without the U.S., there’d be no Israel," Trump said, adding that the country "would have been blown up a long time ago had I not gotten involved."
"Without me, there would be no Israel, because no other president was willing to do what I did," he said.
Trump said Israel has been fighting Hezbollah "too long" and that "too many people are being killed" in Lebanon.
"They should have been able to do this yet faster," he said. "It just goes on forever, and when that happens, it throws a negative light on the big deal, and that's the deal with Iran."
Referring to the civilian toll of the Israeli airstrikes, Trump said, "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."
Trump also said he suggested Israel allow Syria to confront the group instead.
"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," he said.
