ANKARA, July 8 (Reuters) – U.S. President Donald Trump said on Wednesday that he thought Israel would withdraw troops from southern Lebanon because it wanted to take that step, despite comments from Israel’s leader indicating otherwise.
Trump told reporters at the NATO Summit in Ankara that he had discussed a withdrawal with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
“Yeah, I think they’re going to. I think they want to,” Trump said. “So we have a deal with Israel and Lebanon. Yeah, they’ll leave. And I think it’s going to work out very well.”
Netanyahu visited Lebanese territory occupied by the Israeli military last week, telling soldiers that Israel would not withdraw from the country’s south as long as Iran-backed Hezbollah continued to pose a threat.
The Israeli and Lebanese governments on June 26 reached a security agreement mediated by the United States under which Israel will hand over two areas to Lebanon’s army.
(Reporting by Gram Slattery in Ankara and Susan Heavey in Washington; Writing by Daphne Psaledakis, editing by David Ljunggren and Michelle Nichols )
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