Israeli aircraft struck the Abu al-Duhur airbase in north-western Syria overnight on 17 and 18 August. Ten days later the diplomatic argument it started is still running, and Washington is still asking both governments to step back.

What makes this episode unusual is not the strike itself. Israel has carried out hundreds of attacks on Syrian territory since the fall of Bashar al-Assad in December 2024. It is where the criticism came from.

What happened at the airbase

Abu al-Duhur sits in Idlib province, south of Aleppo and roughly 70 kilometres from the Turkish border. Syrian state television, citing a military source, reported eight strikes on the runway and storage facilities. There were no casualties.

The airfield had been out of service for years during the civil war. According to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, Turkey — a principal backer of the current Syrian government — had been rehabilitating it.

Israel said nothing for a day. Then, late on the Tuesday evening, the prime minister’s office issued a statement saying Israel and Syria had agreed a status quo on security matters which Damascus was on the verge of breaching by permitting Turkish troops to deploy at a base near Aleppo. Israel had warned Syria repeatedly, the statement said, and Syria had ignored the warnings. Israel later indicated it had intelligence that Turkey intended to place drones and a radar system there.

Syria’s foreign ministry condemned the strikes as a violation of its sovereignty and territorial integrity, and argued that continued Israeli attacks — while Syria exercises restraint and works to consolidate stability — are an attempt to undermine that stabilisation and push the region toward further tension.

A rebuke from an unusual direction

Tom Barrack, the US ambassador to Turkey who also serves as special envoy to Syria and Iraq, posted publicly that Washington was deeply concerned the confirmed Israeli strikes constituted “an unnecessary escalation that does not advance regional stability”, and urged all parties to prioritise discussion over further military incidents.

He went further, saying the interim government of President Ahmad al-Sharaa had neither adopted a predatory posture nor maintained proxy forces, and had repeatedly signalled a preference for de-escalation. That is a notably warm characterisation of a government Israel treats as a security threat, delivered by a close associate of President Trump.

The dispute is really about Turkey

Syria was the place bombed, but Turkey was the intended audience. Ankara condemned the strikes and called on the international community to hold Israel accountable. Earlier in August, at a joint press conference with his Syrian counterpart, Turkish foreign minister Hakan Fidan had described Israel’s attacks on Syria as among the greatest destabilising factors in the country.

On 19 August Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu warned Turkey directly against expanding its military role in Syria, and said Israel had issued that warning before the bombing rather than after it.

Underneath the exchange is a straightforward strategic problem. Turkey backs the government in Damascus and wants a durable military footprint in Syria. Israel regards any such footprint near its northern approaches as a threat, and has been operating with considerable freedom over Syrian airspace since Assad fell. There is no agreed framework governing either, which is why a runway becomes a diplomatic incident.

Where it stands

On 23 August Syria’s foreign minister, Asaad Hassan al-Shaibani, met the director of Israel’s Mossad, Roman Gofman. In behind-the-scenes discussions involving Israel, Syria and the United States, Damascus denied any intention of allowing a Turkish military presence at the base. Al-Shaibani said Syria remains ready to negotiate a new security agreement, while adding that de-escalation cannot be the responsibility of one side alone.

US-mediated talks between Israel and Syria have now run for more than a year without producing an agreement. On Thursday Washington again publicly urged both governments to seek de-escalation.

Sources

Al Jazeera; Associated Press; Syrian Arab News Agency; The Jerusalem Post; Axios; FDD’s Long War Journal; Anadolu Agency.