The United States has suggested that the government of former al-Qaeda jihadist Ahmed al-Sharaa in Syria is considering operations against Hezbollah in Lebanon and Damascus and weighing the prospects of entering the greater war on Iran, Reuters reported on Tuesday.
Syria is one of a dwindling number of countries in western Asia that have not yet been either attacked by the Iranian terror state or by its rivals, Israel and the United States, this month. President Donald Trump announced an aggressive military operation against Iran, Operation Epic Fury, on February 28 that eliminated the “supreme leader” of the country, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. Israel has engaged in a variety of attacks on the Iranian regime in tandem with Washington since, including strikes that the Israeli government claimed killed the most powerful Iranian official left after Khamenei, National Security Council chief Ali Larijani, on Tuesday.
In response to Operation Epic Fury, Iranian officers have conducted missile and drone strikes on over a dozen nations in the region, including Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, Qatar, Cyprus, Turkey, and Azerbaijan. In Lebanon, the Iranian proxy terrorist organization Hezbollah began launching attacks against Israel on March 1, prompting an expansive Israeli operation displacing over a million people in that country.
Syria shares a significant border with Lebanon. Its leadership, which took power after deposing longtime dictator Bashar Assad in late 2024, maintains a hostile relationship with both Hezbollah and Iran. Sharaa, prior to being chosen as “president,” was the head of the Sunni jihadist terror organization Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) which fought for over a decade against Hezbollah and Iran during the Syrian civil war. Assad, an Alawite Muslim, sustained himself in power largely as a result of Iranian support.
In contrast to the essentially non-existent diplomatic relationship between Iran and Syria, Sharaa has fostered a positive relationship with President Donald Trump. Trump met with Sharaa in May for the first time, describing him as a “young, attractive guy” and expressing confidence that he had a chance to properly rebuild the country after over a decade of civil war.
Anonymous sources speaking to Reuters claimed on Tuesday that Washington has used that positive relationship to reach out to Sharaa and suggest that Syrian forces enter Lebanon to fight Hezbollah.
“Reuters spoke to 10 sources for this article — six Syrian officials and government advisors, two Western diplomats, a European official, and a Western intelligence source,” the outlet explained. “All said Syria’s Sunni Islamist-led government had been cautiously considering a cross-border operation but remained hesitant.”
Syria’s hesitation, the sources claimed, was due to the potential of dragging the country into yet another war just after reaching the one-year anniversary of the end of its own civil war. Syria is also reportedly hesitant to sour relations with the government of Lebanon, which has been eager to do away with the long-term and formidable Hezbollah presence in the country under current President Joseph Aoun.
“One source, a senior Syrian official, said Damascus and its Arab allies agreed Syria should stay out of the war, and take only defensive measures,” Reuters noted.
The Syrian government told Reuters that Sharaa had recently held two phone calls with Aoun, one also including the leadership of Lebanon’s previous colonial ruler France, “in which Sharaa said Syria respected Lebanon’s sovereignty and had no intervention plans.” Sharaa also reportedly expressed support for Aoun.
The state-run Syrian Arab News Agency (SANA) reported on March 1 that the country’s Foreign Minister Asaad Hassan al-Shaibani reached out to the prime minister of Lebanon, Nawaf Salam, in response to the onset of open conflict between Iran and Israel and America. Shaibani reportedly told Salam that he acknowledged the “importance of increasing coordination between the two countries to enhance security and stability amid current developments.”
SANA also reported that Sharaa spoke directly to French President Emmanuel Macron on March 6 to assure him that Syria was not planning to invade Lebanon.
”President al-Sharaa presented Syria’s perspective on the ongoing situation, stressing that the defensive measures taken along the Syrian-Lebanese border aim solely at protecting the frontier and preventing attempts to smuggle weapons or destabilize the region,” SANA relayed.
Sharaa pointedly condemned Iran’s various missile and drone attacks on its neighbors during that call, as well, echoing the various stern condemnations of Iran, and support for its victims, from the Syrian Foreign Ministry in the past month.
In a report published last week, the Emirati newspaper The National noted that Syria’s immediate response to Operation Epic Fury was to amass thousands of troops on its border with Lebanon, apparently anticipating a Hezbollah attack — and that Syria is eager to keep friendly relations with America.
“The alliance with America is his [Sharaa’s] main foreign policy motivator,” an anonymous source told the newspaper. “If America says go in, he will.”
The troops on the border, according to The National, include “800 mostly Uighur elite fighters.” The forces are allegedly “itching” to “settle scores with Hezbollah.”
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