Tom Barrack says attack constitutes an unnecessary escalation
US Ambassador to Türkiye Tom Barrack has condemned Israeli airstrikes on an airbase in northwestern Syria as a dangerous escalation.
On Tuesday, Israeli forces struck the Abu al-Duhur base in Idlib province, near the Turkish border. Although there were no casualties, the strikes damaged the recently built runways.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office said the attack was carried out because Israel and Syria had agreed to “a status quo in security matters,” and claimed that Damascus was “on the verge” of breaching the arrangement by allowing “Turkish troops to deploy at an airbase near Aleppo.”
“Israel repeatedly warned Syria that such a deployment would pose a threat to Israel’s security. Syria chose to ignore these warnings,” it added.
Both Syria and Türkiye denied the claims. Barrack, who also serves as US President Donald Trump’s envoy to Syria and Iraq, said the strikes “constitute an unnecessary escalation that does not advance regional stability.”
Barrack added that the government of Syrian President Ahmed al-Sharaa “has neither adopted a predatory posture nor maintained proxy forces” and was committed to “de-escalation with Israel.”
“We encourage all parties to prioritize logical discourse over further military incidents,” Barrack wrote on X on Tuesday.
Syrian Foreign Minister Asaad al-Shaibani told Axios on Wednesday that Damascus had “no intention” of establishing a Turkish base or allowing a permanent Turkish military presence at the site. The Turkish Foreign Ministry similarly accused Israel of resorting to “frivolous allegations” to legitimize its attacks on Syria.
Netanyahu defended the strikes on a podcast on Wednesday.
“The message was conveyed but apparently they didn’t hear it, so we made sure they understood it more clearly,” he said, according to the Times of Israel. Netanyahu has repeatedly clashed with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, a vocal critic of Israel’s war in Gaza.
Relations between Israel and the US have remained tense in recent months as Netanyahu, who faces parliamentary elections in October, rejected Trump’s peace plan for Gaza, arguing that Israeli troops would not withdraw from the Palestinian enclave until Hamas fully disarms.
Trump earlier condemned Israeli strikes in southern Lebanon, saying they could undermine peace talks with Iran. This week, Trump said he had suspended the negotiations and announced a “historic” campaign to cripple Iran’s economy.
