Blumenthal Slams Trump's Syria-Hezbollah Plan as 'Absurd'
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- Blumenthal called Trump's Syria-Hezbollah idea 'absolutely absurd' on CNN, citing Syria's human rights record and its role as a 'proxy for Russia'
- Trump, speaking at the G7 in France alongside Qatar's emir, said he told Netanyahu to 'let Syria take care of' Hezbollah, arguing Syria 'would do a better job'
- Trump praised Syrian President Ahmed al-Sharaa — a former al-Qaeda member who took over after Assad fled to Moscow — as 'very good with Hezbollah' despite noting he is 'not a boy scout'
- Blumenthal, a member of the Senate Armed Services Committee, said Lebanese President Joseph Aoun needs more support and Israel 'will never surrender its own defense to Syria or any other country'
- As of June 11, Israeli strikes in Lebanon had killed 3,711 people and wounded 11,483, including 132 health workers and 247 children, per the Lebanese Health Ministry and Human Rights Watch
- Trump also criticized Israel's tactics, specifically a Sunday Beirut apartment strike hours before the U.S.-Iran deal, saying 'they're not all Hezbollah, that I can tell you'
- The Israeli Lebanon campaign has derailed U.S.-Iran negotiations on ending hostilities, with Israeli and Iranian officials split on whether a tentative peace deal applies to Lebanon
Why it matters: A senator on the Armed Services Committee publicly broke with the president over a live Middle East security decision being floated at the G7, while Lebanese civilian casualties — 3,711 killed including 247 children — raise the material stakes of who runs the anti-Hezbollah fight.
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