{"id":256458,"date":"2026-08-19T17:20:17","date_gmt":"2026-08-19T17:20:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/256458\/"},"modified":"2026-08-19T17:20:17","modified_gmt":"2026-08-19T17:20:17","slug":"us-pressure-on-israel-needed-for-peace-in-syria-syrias-war-news","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/256458\/","title":{"rendered":"US pressure on Israel needed for peace in Syria | Syria’s War News"},"content":{"rendered":"

A day after a suspected Israeli attack<\/a> on the Abu al-Duhur airbase near Idlib, northwest Syria, US Ambassador to Turkiye Tom Barrack has suggested creating a \u201cdeconfliction mechanism\u201d between Turkiye, Syria and Israel. Barrack called the original attack \u2013 which he, along with the Syrian government, blamed on Israel \u2013 an \u201cunnecessary escalation\u201d.<\/p>\n

But despite the intervention from the US official, analysts believe the proposal may not be able to stop Israel, which has conducted regular attacks on Syria for years, and continues to occupy Syrian territory.<\/p>\n

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\u201cIt is difficult to have a deconfliction mechanism [when] only one party [is] causing conflict in the first place,\u201d Samy Akil, a senior adviser with The Syria Report, told Al Jazeera.<\/p>\n

Analysts and diplomatic sources say that Israel is the party holding back progress on talks and the easing of tensions with Syria, which is under a new government since the overthrow of former President Bashar al-Assad in December 2024. At the end of a more than decade-long war, Syria is now seeking better relations with the West.<\/p>\n

\u201cIsraeli-Syrian talks are stagnating because the ball is in Israel\u2019s court and they don\u2019t see a need to prioritise talks with Damascus currently,\u201d Akil said.<\/p>\n

Turkiye and Israel trade verbal shots<\/p>\n

Under the former al-Assad regime, Israel often attacked Iranian-aligned targets or interests in Syria \u2013 including the Iranian consulate in Damascus<\/a> in April 2024 \u2013 but avoided directly attacking Syrian state targets.<\/p>\n

That changed when al-Assad fled in the early hours of December 8, 2024. Israel attacked Syria\u2019s military infrastructure around the country, aiming to cripple the new government\u2019s military forces. It also threatened the post-Assad military with deploying forces south of Damascus.<\/p>\n

And since the fall of al-Assad, Israel has also shifted focus from Iranian influence in Syria to Turkish influence in the country. The Turks backed a number of anti-Assad rebel groups, many Syrians in exile spent considerable time in Turkiye, and Ankara has sought to build strong ties with Damascus and Syria\u2019s new President Ahmed al-Sharaa.<\/p>\n

Analysts told Al Jazeera that Tuesday\u2019s attack was in fact a message from Tel Aviv directed at the halls of power in Ankara.<\/p>\n

On Tuesday evening, the Israeli Prime Minister\u2019s Office issued a statement that seemed to confirm that suspicion, while it stopped short of claiming responsibility for the actual attack.<\/p>\n

\u201cIsrael and Syria agreed to a status quo in security matters, which Syria was on the verge of breaching by permitting Turkish troops to deploy at an airbase near Aleppo,\u201d the statement said.<\/p>\n

\u201cIsrael repeatedly warned Syria that such a deployment would pose a threat to Israel\u2019s security. Syria chose to ignore these warnings.\u201d<\/p>\n

Turkiye has slammed the Israeli account of events.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe untenable allegations put forward by the Israeli Prime Minister\u2019s Office are intended to legitimise Israel\u2019s unlawful airstrikes targeting Syria\u2019s sovereignty and territorial integrity,\u201d the Republic of Turkiye\u2019s Directorate of Communications said.<\/p>\n

It also accused Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of pursuing \u201cexpansionist and destabilising policies in the region ahead of the elections in Israel\u201d.<\/p>\n

Israeli provocations in Syria<\/p>\n

Enter US Ambassador Barrack and the idea of a deconfliction mechanism. This would act as a channel of communication between the concerned actors \u2013 Syria, Turkiye and Israel. It would be facilitated by the US, and would aim to prevent military escalations.<\/p>\n

The strategy appears to be similar to what the US is trying to build<\/a> in Lebanon between Beirut and Tel Aviv. That deal is aimed at stopping Israeli attacks on Lebanon, disarming Hezbollah, and convincing Israel to withdraw troops from southern Lebanon. However, experts say these processes have yet to show results, largely because of Israel\u2019s military superiority and the Netanyahu government\u2019s willingness to undermine negotiations through unilateral military actions.<\/p>\n

For its part, the Syrian government has shown a strong willingness to find a solution with Israel, even if it has emphasised that it is not willing to agree to full normalisation.<\/p>\n

That is despite the Israeli landgrab of Syrian territory in the Golan Heights and Jabal al-Sheikh in December 2024, and the continued deployment of checkpoints that harass and at times kidnap Syrian citizens.<\/p>\n

Early on Wednesday morning, Israeli troops reportedly conducted a raid on Quneitra in southwestern Syria and abducted two people.<\/p>\n

Analysts say that for any deconfliction mechanism to work, all parties must be committed to working towards the goal.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn other words, at what point does a deconfliction mechanism provide added value when any sort of Syrian military buildup 300 kilometres [186 miles] away from Israeli borders is perceived as a threat?\u201d Akil said, adding that Syria\u2019s small Soviet-era air force would not \u201cseriously pose a threat to Israel\u201d.<\/p>\n

Netanyahu\u2019s re-election escalation<\/p>\n

Galip Dalay, a senior research fellow at Chatham House, told Al Jazeera that for any mechanism to work, the US would need to apply pressure on Netanyahu\u2019s government.<\/p>\n

Dalay said Netanyahu, who is running for re-election in October, is likely looking for an escalation with either Lebanon or Syria \u2013 or in Palestine \u2013 after US President Donald Trump pressured Israel to back down<\/a> in the war on Iran.<\/p>\n

But earlier in August, Netanyahu explicitly rejected the Gaza disarmament plan announced by Trump, forcing it to be altered \u2013 and did not receive any public pushback from the US.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf the US puts proper pressure on Israel, they would listen,\u201d Dalay said. \u201cWe saw this with Iran. It was the US who made the decision, and even though Netanyahu didn\u2019t like it, they had to go along with the decision.\u201d<\/p>\n

Dalay added: \u201cThe question is not only about if there is a need for a deconfliction mechanism in Syria; it is to what extent the US is willing to make it credible and functional, and if the US is willing to put pressure on Israel.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A day after a suspected Israeli attack on the Abu al-Duhur airbase near Idlib, northwest Syria, US Ambassador…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":256459,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[33],"tags":[647,37,49,42,95,1183],"class_list":["post-256458","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-israel","tag-features","tag-israel","tag-middle-east","tag-news","tag-syria","tag-syrias-war"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@iran\/117123325856470477","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/256458","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=256458"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/256458\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/256459"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=256458"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=256458"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=256458"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}