{"id":1013333,"date":"2026-08-20T18:56:15","date_gmt":"2026-08-20T18:56:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/1013333\/"},"modified":"2026-08-20T18:56:15","modified_gmt":"2026-08-20T18:56:15","slug":"israel-struck-syria-after-turkey-crossed-a-red-line-envoy-to-us-says","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/1013333\/","title":{"rendered":"Israel struck Syria after Turkey ‘crossed a red line’, envoy to US says"},"content":{"rendered":"

Israeli Ambassador to the United States Yechiel Leiter told The Jerusalem Post that Israel had received clear intelligence indicating that Turkey intended to significantly expand its military presence in Syria<\/a>, a move Jerusalem viewed as crossing a red line.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe are not seeking escalation or war with either Turkey<\/a> or Syria. But a red line was crossed,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

His comments came following Israel\u2019s strike in Syria and subsequent criticism from both the Syrian and Turkish governments.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis was supposed to be a blatant Turkish violation of the understandings,\u201d Leiter said. \u201cThose who needed to be exposed to the intelligence received it. Those who needed to know what was coming knew. We made clear that this was a violation of our understandings \u2013 and that is why Israel acted as it did.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"MilitaryMilitary personnel stand on the walls of the Damascus Citadel overlooking crowds attending the Syria Summer Family Festival in Damascus, Syria, on August 9, 2026; illustrative (credit: Omar Albam\/Middle East Images\/AFP via Getty Images)<\/p>\n

According to Leiter, the failure to heed those warnings led Israel on Tuesday to strike the Abu al-Duhur airbase in Syria, near the city of Aleppo, where Turkish forces were reportedly expected to arrive. Syrian officials said the airfield was targeted in at least eight strikes, while satellite imagery released afterward showed damage to its runways.<\/p>\n

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu<\/a> said on Wednesday that \u201cIsrael made the message clear: Don\u2019t.\u201d<\/p>\n

Israeli ambassador to Post: Turkish presence in Syria ‘froze the existing situation’<\/strong><\/p>\n

Leiter said the Turkish move contradicted understandings reached during the Biden administration between Israel and the administration of Syrian President Ahmed al-Sharaa, which \u201cfroze the existing situation\u201d in the country.<\/p>\n

According to Leiter, those understandings were reaffirmed at a meeting in Paris in January 2026 attended by Syrian Foreign Minister Asaad al-Shaibani, US Syria envoy Tom Barrack<\/a>, Leiter, then-National Security Council chief Gil Reich, and Netanyahu\u2019s military secretary Roman Gofman, now Mossad director.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe freeze means that just as the Turks don\u2019t move, neither do we \u2013 and they don\u2019t force us to withdraw,\u201d Leiter said. \u201cAnd it is important to understand that while we are sitting on only 78 sq. miles in Syria, in a security zone, the Turks have carried out a creeping annexation of 3,500 sq. miles in northern Syria over the past several years \u2013 about 5% of the country\u2019s territory.\u201d<\/p>\n

With the exception of US Syria envoy and ambassador to Turkey Tom Barrack, senior US officials have not condemned the Israeli strike in Syria.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe administration\u2019s policy is that the freeze agreed upon in the past will continue, which is why even Trump did not condemn the strike,\u201d Leiter said.<\/p>\n

Israel, Syria do not want to escalate war with each other\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

Despite the tensions, Leiter stressed that Israel understands that Syria is not seeking an escalation or war.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt is clear to us that the Syrians do not want a confrontation with us,\u201d he said. \u201cThat is why we are telling the Turks not to create conflicts. There is more than one indication that the move planned by Turkey was imposed on the Syrians.\u201d<\/p>\n

Leiter said the apparent disconnect was also evident in conflicting Turkish and Syrian statements following the strike.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhile Syrian Foreign Minister Shaibani acknowledged that there had been a Turkish delegation in Syria several days before the strike, the Turks denied it. They should sort it out among themselves.\u201d<\/p>\n

He did not rule out a return to direct talks with Syria, as has taken place in the past, but he said the conditions would have to be right.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe negotiations can be renewed. We want to continue the face-to-face dialogue that we previously held with the Syrians,\u201d the ambassador said.<\/p>\n

Leiter added that Israel was also not seeking a confrontation with Turkey and remained open to dialogue with Ankara.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe are certainly open to dialogue with them, but according to statements by senior officials in the country, they would prefer to wipe Israel off the map.\u201d<\/p>\n

He was referring to repeated statements by Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan accusing Israel of crimes against humanity, as well as Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan\u2019s statement that \u201cIsrael is a stain on humanity.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cAt a time when Turkey is hosting Hamas leaders and transferring funds to Hezbollah and Hamas, Iran\u2019s arm against Israel, it is not appropriate for them to begin expanding their influence in Lebanon and Syria,\u201d Leiter said.<\/p>\n

\u201cUnder the current circumstances, Turkey cannot be a force that helps calm the region.<\/p>\n

\u201cI wish we could return to the situation of several decades ago in relations between Jerusalem and Ankara. Then, we would be open to Turkish influence in the region. But it is not logical for Turkish influence in the region to grow while Turkey is funding terrorist organizations.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Israeli Ambassador to the United States Yechiel Leiter told The Jerusalem Post that Israel had received clear intelligence…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":1013334,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[2],"tags":[4784,99,13192,50,23312,24922,277305],"class_list":["post-1013333","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-news","tag-idf","tag-israel","tag-lebanon","tag-news","tag-syria","tag-turkey","tag-yechiel-leiter"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/117129367461520337","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1013333","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1013333"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1013333\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1013334"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1013333"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1013333"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1013333"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}