Syrian Foreign Minister Asaad Al-Shaibani has said that he made clear to Israel his government wasn't working with Türkiye to amass a military presence at a Syrian airbase — but Israel went ahead and attacked the site anyway. Israel struck the Abu al-Duhur airbase in Syria on Tuesday, warning Syria was on the verge of violating a "status quo agreed with Israel in security matters" by allowing Turkish troops to deploy at the airbase. "[T]here was no intention to establish a Turkish base there, nor to establish a permanent Turkish military presence or deploy Turkish forces at the site," Al-Shaibani said in one of eight written responses to questions from Axios on Wednesday. US President Donald Trump told Axios in a phone call that he'd been briefed on the Israeli strike, but did not criticize it. "I can't talk about it," he said. He declined to say whether his briefing came before or after the strike. Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz said on Thursday that Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan was "dragging Türkiye into dangerous adventures in Syria.” Katz, in a post on X, said his country would not "allow any entity to threaten its security." The strikes on Tuesday follow worsening security tensions between Israel and Türkiye and increasingly sharp rhetoric between the two countries over Syria, where both countries' militaries are active. Türkiye firmly rejected on Wednesday what it called "untenable allegations" by Israel regarding its military position in Syria after Israel said Syria was on the verge of permitting Turkish troops to deploy there.
