Trump warns Israel not to prevent Syria's 'evolution'

US President Donald Trump issued a veiled warning against Israel on Monday not to interfere with Syria’s “evolution” after it conducted a deadly raid against its neighbour that killed more than a dozen people.

“The United States is very satisfied with the results displayed, through hard work and determination, in the country of Syria,” Trump wrote on his social media platform, TruthSocial.

“It is very important that Israel maintain a strong and true dialogue with Syria and that nothing takes place that will interfere with Syria’s evolution into a prosperous state,” he added.

The Israeli army killed at least 13 people on Friday during a raid on a village in southern Syria. The villagers of Beit Jinn, which sits just 50km southwest of Damascus, tried to repel the Israeli attack, Syrian media reported. Israeli warplanes launched air strikes to prevent the troops from being "encircled", Syrian media reported.

The Israeli military said that six of its soldiers were wounded, three of them seriously. 

Shortly after Trump’s social media post, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office said the two leaders spoke on the phone and that Trump invited his counterpart to the White House in the "near future”.

The raid broke a relative lull in Israeli attacks on Syria, which had been taking place since the collapse of Bashar al-Assad’s government late last year.

Israel took advantage of Assad’s downfall to occupy a United Nations buffer zone in southern Syria and launched powerful air strikes that reached the capital, Damascus, over the summer.

Israel is digging in on Syria’s Mount Hermon, the highest peak in the region. It has also sought to portray itself as a defender of Syria’s Druze minority in the south by backing Druze leader Sheikh Hikmat Salaman al-Hajri with arms, experts say.

In July, Israel attacked convoys of Syrian troops trying to deploy to the south.

Israel and US at loggerheads in Syria?

Diplomats and analysts say that Israel and the Trump administration appear to be working at cross purposes in Syria.

Trump hosted Syrian President Ahmed al-Sharaa at the White House in November, a historic encounter that underscored Sharaa’s own evolution from leader of a US-listed terror organisation to Oval Office visitor.

Sharaa joined a counter-Islamic State group coalition when he visited the White House. Experts say that move could help him sideline the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) in the future. The US still has around 1,000 troops in northeastern Syria and relies on the SDF to guard IS prisoners and their families. The SDF fought with the US against IS and is resisting attempts to integrate itself into the Syrian military.

On Sunday, US Central Command said it had destroyed 15 IS “weapons caches” in coordination with Syria’s interior ministry.

'Meeting is the message': On US visit, Syria's Sharaa eyes boost against Israel, SDF and sanctions

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Sharaa enjoys the backing of Turkey, Saudi Arabia and Qatar. Trump lifted sanctions on Syria in May at the request of regional leaders. 

The Gulf states are bankrolling Sharaa’s cash-strapped government while Ankara is training Syria’s military and eyeing a defence agreement with Damascus.

The US lobbied Turkey and Israel to enter deconfliction talks to avoid a clash between its two partners over Syria in the spring, Middle East Eye first revealed. 

Sharaa's own government has been in talks with Israel, mediated by US envoy Tom Barrack, about a security deal to defuse tensions along their border. 

Robert Ford, a former US ambassador to Syria, previously told MEE that the talks appeared stalled due to Israel's refusal to pull its troops out of Syria. 

“I see no evidence the Israelis are preparing to withdraw from the territory they seized after December 2024, much less the Golan Heights. So what does Sharaa get in return for a deal with Israel? What’s in it for him?” Ford said.

Sharaa's Sunni Islamist militant group, Hay’at Tahrir al-Sham, toppled Assad from power. Although relatively peaceful now, the country has seen sectarian violence against Christians, Alawites and Druze.