Trump rehashes criticism of Israel for purportedly pulling out of 2020 operation to kill Soleimani

US President Donald Trump again harangues Israel for purportedly pulling out of a joint operation with the US in 2020 to kill Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps commander Qassem Soleimani.

Trump has told this story repeatedly in the past, but had largely stopped after he became the GOP presidential nominee in 2024, at which point his relationship with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu improved substantially.

But those ties appear to have taken a major hit in recent weeks over disagreements regarding Netanyahu’s conduct in Iran and Lebanon.

“They’ve been wonderful to me, Israel, but they didn’t want to do that attack,” Trump says during a press conference at a G7 summit in France.

“They were all set the night before the attack. Then [they told] me they didn’t want to do it,” Trump adds, claiming that he decided to go ahead with the operation without Israel.

Trump then repeats his criticism of Netanyahu over Israel’s conduct against Hezbollah.

“Bibi Netanyahu happens to be a good man, but he gets a little excited sometimes,” Trump says, while still calling him an “amazing prime minister.”

“We have a little dispute over Lebanon. I say, ‘You can do a little softer touch, Bibi. You don’t have to knock down a building every time somebody walks into it that’s from Hezbollah,'” Trump says.

“But it’s been an amazing partnership. [Netanyahu] will say [the US is] the big partner, and [Israel’s] the very small partner, and that’s true,” he adds.

Trump then reveals that the US has “sent a copy” of the MOU that the US signed with Iran. Earlier in the week, Israeli officials had asked the US for a copy but were reportedly rejected due to fears that they would leak it.

He subsequently reiterates his desire for Syria to fight Hezbollah instead of Israel — a wildly unpopular idea in Damascus.

Trump claims that Syrian President Ahmed al-Sharaa would be open to fighting Hezbollah and would do so with more precision. He appears to admit having heard some pushback to the idea. “I don’t know that people want that — maybe they don’t.”

Trump laments the way that Lebanon has been treated over the last 50 to 60 years. “They have been just trashed. They have been living in hell.”