New Delhi, June 7 -- The word he chose was surgical. Not ceasefire, not restraint, not even the softer diplomatic formulations his own State Department has been using for weeks. On Sunday morning, with the Iran war at its 100th day and peace talks still stuck on nuclear sequencing, Donald Trump sat before an NBC News camera and told the world precisely what he wants Israel to stop doing - and what he cannot make it stop.

"We can help them with that, or we can recommend Syria."

The Syria reference was not explained. Damascus, now under a new government Washington has been cautiously courting, sits on the primary land corridor through which Hezbollah has historically resupplied from Iran. Whether Trump meant military coordination, a diplo...