Türkiye rejects Israeli claims after strike on Syria air base

DAMASCUS: Türkiye rejected on Wednesday (Aug 19) Israeli allegations that it posed a threat by preparing to send troops to a base in Syria, which was hit in a strike that the United States blamed on Israel.

The strike marked extraordinary defiance by Israel of the United States, which has sought to support Syria's new government led by a former militant allied with Türkiye.

"Israel and Syria agreed to a status quo in security matters, which Syria was on the verge of breaching by permitting Turkish troops to deploy at an airbase near Aleppo," Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's office said in a statement after a day of official silence by Israel.

"Israel repeatedly warned Syria that such a deployment would pose a threat to Israel's security. Syria chose to ignore these warnings," said the statement, which stopped short of acknowledging Israeli responsibility.

Türkiye was the first Muslim-majority nation to recognise Israel and is a NATO ally of the United States.

But Israel has tense relations with President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, whose roots are in political Islam and who has vociferously denounced Israel, especially over its devastating offensive in Gaza.

The Turkish government slammed Israel's remarks in a statement on Wednesday quoted by the Anadolu state news agency.

"The frivolous allegations put forward by the Israeli Prime Minister's office aim to legitimise Israel's unlawful airstrikes targeting Syria's sovereignty and territorial integrity," it said.

US envoy for Syria Tom Barrack said earlier Tuesday it was confirmed that Israel carried out the strikes on the Abu Duhur air base in Idlib province.

The attacks "constitute an unnecessary escalation that does not advance regional stability", Barrack, a business friend of President Donald Trump who is also ambassador to Türkiye, wrote on X.

"We encourage all parties to prioritise logical discourse over further military incidents," he said.

EXPANSION OF FIGHT

Israel has launched hundreds of strikes on Syria since the December 2024 toppling of longtime ruler Bashar al-Assad by extremist forces led by former militant Ahmed al-Sharaa, who relies on support from Türkiye.

It has also sent troops into a United Nations-patrolled buffer zone that had separated Israeli and Syrian forces in the Israeli-occupied Golan since 1974, and carries out regular incursions deeper inside Syrian territory.

But the strike goes much further into Syria than the so-called security zone.

Israel has been seen as seeking to press its advantage at a weak moment for historic adversary Syria, which welcomed Russian forces during Assad's reign.

Syrian state media, quoting a military source, said that Israeli aircraft targeted the runway of the base with eight strikes, damaging infrastructure but without causing casualties.

The facility has been out of service since 2012 and is protected by Syrian defence ministry forces, a security source told AFP.

According to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights monitor, the strikes came after "a visit by a Turkish military delegation to the airfield in recent days as part of efforts to reactivate it".

The relationship between Netanyahu and Erdogan has become increasingly poisoned.

A billboard for Netanyahu's Likud party ahead of October elections in Israel pictured the Turkish leader alongside figures including Naim Qassem, head of Lebanon's Iran-backed Hezbollah militant group, boasting that the Muslim leaders want Netanyahu to lose.

Syria's foreign ministry condemned "in the strongest terms the Israeli airstrikes" targeting the base, calling them "an unjustified act of aggression" and urging action by the UN Security Council.

The attacks come as Syria "has exercised restraint and worked to consolidate stability and avoid escalation", it added.

Despite tensions between the neighbours, Israel and Syria's new authorities have held several rounds of direct talks and have agreed to establish an intelligence-sharing mechanism.

Last month, Syrian Foreign Minister Asaad al-Shaibani demanded an unconditional withdrawal by Israel, warning that "the unlawful occupation of our land beyond the 1974 line is a direct threat to the security of the region".

But last week Israeli Defence Minister Israel Katz said that his country planned to keep troops in Syria.

UN chief Antonio Guterres on a visit to Damascus last month said that "violations of Syria's sovereignty and territorial integrity are unacceptable and must cease," adding that "the Golan Heights are Syrian territory".

Israel captured most of the Golan from Syria in the 1967 Arab-Israeli War and later annexed the areas under its control, in a move not recognised by most of the international community.