Foreign Relations

Turkey Was Not Warned Before Israel's Syria Strike, U.S. Pushes Deconfliction Mechanism

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Courtroom-sketch editorial illustration of the Abu al-Duhur airbase on the flat Syrian plain after airstrikes: a long arched concrete aircraft shelter with a dark open mouth dominates the foreground, rubble, scattered debris and a wrecked vehicle piled along its right flank behind a low wire fence, low damaged single-storey buildings, a corrugated shed, a water tank and leaning utility poles strung with wires spread across the middle distance between long dirt berms, and a hazy line of distant h

U.S. Special Envoy for Syria Tom Barrack, also ambassador to Turkey, said Tuesday that Ankara had not been warned before Israel's strikes on the Abu al-Duhur airbase, observed the aircraft heading north toward its territory and could have prepared its own response. He said calm heads prevented the situation from deteriorating, and that Washington is actively working to establish a deconfliction mechanism involving Israel, Syria and Turkey. Barrack said the strikes reflected a perception that Turkey might soon increase its presence at the base, which a Turkish delegation inspected on Monday ahead of runway repairs. The eight strikes at dawn Tuesday damaged the runway and storage facilities without casualties.

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