The Blogs: Syria: An Israeli And Turkish Battleground

Since the fall of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad in December 2024, Israel has repeatedly struck military bases and equipment in Syria and seized bits of territory in the southern part of the country, all in the name of protecting its northern border.

Last week, in one of its boldest and most provocative moves, Israel bombed Abu al-Duhur, an empty Syrian air base some 70 kilometers from the Turkish border. In eight strikes, Israeli aircraft damaged all its runways.

The raid heightened tensions with Turkey, which was once one of Israel’s closest allies. It also stoked acrimony with Syria, whose previous regime was hostile to Israel but whose current government has sought to end Syria’s state of war with Israel.

In a bid to lower the political temperature, the director of the Mossad, Roman Gofman, met Syrian Foreign Minister Asaad al-Shaibani in Jordan on August 23, the Axios news site reported. They discussed the possibility of creating a “special operations room” in Jordan under US supervision to prevent future confrontations in Syria that might draw in Turkey, the sole Muslim member of the NATO alliance.

The day before their meeting, Shaibani told Reuters that he expects Syria and Israel to resume talks to improve bilateral relations. “Syria is extending its hand for understandings, for peace and regional stability,” he said, expressing the hope that diplomacy will lead to a halt in Israeli strikes in Syria and Israel’s eventual withdrawal from Syrian territory.

The United States, having improved its relationship with Syria in the past two years, has been seeking to forge a security agreement between Israel and Syria. It has proven to be elusive. Israel continues to maintain its grip on the Syrian side of Mount Hermon and occupies the demilitarized zone that was previously patrolled by a United Nations peacekeeping force.

Much to Israel’s surprise, Tom Barrack, the US envoy to Syria and the ambassador to Turkey, criticized Israel’s raid as an “unnecessary escalation.” He claimed that it could have been an attempt by Israel to “bait” Turkey into a conflict ahead of Israeli elections on October 27. And he said that the United States is trying to establish a mechanism to defuse disagreements among Israel, Syria and Turkey.

Shaibani said that this mechanism could pave the way for a security arrangement between Syria and Israel, which have been locked in a state of war since 1948.

According to Gregg Roman, the executive director of the Middle East Forum, the Syrian base struck by Israel had not been a working military facility in more than a decade. Israel targeted it to deter Turkey, its regional rival, from establishing a military presence in Syria, he wrote.

A day prior to Israel’s raid, Syrian officials told the Associated Press that a Turkish delegation toured the base to review rehabilitation work and left hours before Israel struck.

Turkey denied that a Turkish delegation had set foot in the base and condemned the strike as “unacceptable.” Turkey also claimed that Israel’s raid was aimed at harming Syria’s “stability, integrity and infrastructure.”

Haaretz reported that Turkey intends to continue supporting Syria politically and defensively and expects the United States to curb Israel’s military activity in Syria.

Shaibani told Axios that Turkish officials visited the base within the framework of Syria’s military cooperation agreement with Turkey, but denied that Turkey has any plan to deploy its armed forces there.

Syria’s new leadership, headed by President Ahmed al-Sharaa, is facing growing Turkish pressure to advance defense and military cooperation arrangements with Turkey, whose influence in northern Syria runs deep. Syria fears that Israel will regard such cooperation as a provocation that could trigger further escalation and instability.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has adopted a tough approach to this issue. He has said that Israel will not tolerate a Turkish military buildup that “threatens us.” His office issued a statement saying that Syria had been close to violating existing security understandings with Israel, and that Israel would “continue to act forcefully against Turkey’s attempts to destabilize the region.”

Israel’s former prime minister, Ehud Barak, denounced the raid, saying it had recklessly escalated existing tensions with Turkey, which have risen significantly since the Israel-Hamas war in the Gaza Strip. In a post on X, Barak wrote, “Turkey is not Iran or Assad’s Syria. There is no strategic problem with Turkey that cannot be resolved, mitigated or postponed over the long term through discrete contacts coordinated with the United States and its influence in Turkey and Syria. Netanyahu has completely gone off the rails.”

Amos Harel, a Haaretz commentator, claimed that Netanyahu was concerned, first and foremost, with the looming election. “Netanyahu is playing with fire on the Syria front, and his motives are far from purely strategic. The prime minister is constantly playing to the polls, which are predicting failure for him in the election. A military flare-up and sense of emergency could serve him as an October surprise. Defense officials are well aware of this.”

That being said, Turkey exacerbated an already dangerous situation by asking Interpol to enforce an arrest warrant against Netanyahu. Turkey, having already accused Israel of genocide during its war with Hamas in Gaza, went one step further by accusing Israel of abusing pro-Palestinian activists aboard a flotilla of boats bound for Gaza in May.

Responding to Turkey’s request, Netanyahu’s office issued a searing condemnation of Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan. He described him as an “antisemitic dictator” and accused him of massacring Kurds, harboring Hamas operatives, occupying half of Cyprus, and imprisoning journalists and politicians who oppose him.

The statement added that Erdogan was seeking to “extend his aggression against Israel into Syria” and that Israel “will not tolerate it.”

Israel’s ambassador to the United States, Yechiel Leiter, told The Jerusalem Post that Israel had received clear intelligence that Turkey intended to significantly expand its military footprint in Syria. “We are not seeking escalation or war with either Turkey or Syria,” he said. “But a red line was crossed.”

“This was a blatant Turkish violation of the understandings,” he added. “Those who needed to be exposed to the intelligence received it. Those who needed to know what was coming knew. We made clear that this was a violation of our understandings – and that is why Israel acted as it did.”

Leiter said that the Turkish move contradicted understandings reached between Israel and Syria during the Biden administration. Leiter noted that they were discussed by Shaibani, Barrack and Gofman in a meeting in Paris in January 2026.

In defense of Israel’s seizure of Syrian lands, Leiter said, “It is important to understand that while we are sitting on only 78 square miles in Syria, the Turks have carried out a creeping annexation of 3,500 square miles in northern Syria over the past several years – about 5 percent of the country’s territory.”

Judging by the latest dispute, Syria has evolved into a battleground pitting Israel against Turkey. Whether their respective differences can be resolved amicably remains to be seen. Certainly, the United States will attempt to smooth things over. But in light of the complexities pertaining to Israeli, Syrian and Turkish interests, US diplomacy may well fall short of the mark.