US Special Envoy for Syria Tom Barak condemned yesterday's Israeli attack on a military airport in northwestern Syria, DPA reported, and said Washington was deeply concerned by the attack, in which there were no reports of damage or casualties, BTA reports.
„Fox News“ reported that an unnamed senior Israeli official said that Israel had shared highly sensitive intelligence with the United States before the attack, but did not provide further details due to the highly classified nature of the information.
Syria's Foreign Ministry said that Israel had repeatedly struck the country since the fall of long-time President Bashar al-Assad on December 8, 2024, while the Syrian government had shown restraint, sought to consolidate stability and tried to avoid further escalation.
According to the non-governmental organization Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (SOHR), the military airport “Abu Duhur“ has been out of service for years, but is currently being restored with Turkish support.
Turkish vehicles and equipment have been stationed there for some time, with the work including technical and logistical preparations for the airport's eventual re-operation, the HRW noted.
A Turkish military delegation has even visited the airport in recent days to assess the progress of work there, the organization added.
According to reports in Israeli media, the strike was aimed at “limiting Turkey's military influence in Syria“.
“Fox News“ quoted a senior Israeli official as saying that interim President Ahmed al-Sharaa had realized that he could not act like the previous leadership, which supported “puppet forces“. However, the representative admitted that Ash Sharaa may not have known “what was happening“.
Barak criticized the Israeli airstrikes on the airport as an unnecessary escalation and said they did not contribute to regional stability.
The Ash Sharaa government “has neither pursued an aggressive policy nor supported puppet forces“, Barak wrote in Ex, adding that it “has repeatedly shown a preference for de-escalation with Israel“.
Washington has so far facilitated negotiations between the countries and will continue to do so to advance diplomatic efforts, Barak stressed.