Israel carried out airstrikes on the Abu al-Duhur military airbase deep inside northwestern Syria’s Idlib province, a strike Israel says was meant to stop Turkish forces from deploying there. The strike has drawn condemnation from Syria and Turkey and prompted the United States to publicly call it an unnecessary escalation, even as Washington continues supplying the weapons involved.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office said Israel and Syria had agreed to a security status quo that Damascus was on the verge of breaching by allowing Turkish troops to deploy near Aleppo. Turkey’s government called that justification an attempt to legitimize an unlawful strike on Syrian sovereignty, and Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said Israel, not Turkey, is the one seeking escalation.
Why Is the US Calling This an Escalation While Still Supplying the Weapons?
US Ambassador to Turkey Tom Barrack said Washington remains deeply concerned that the strike constitutes an unnecessary escalation that does not advance regional stability, and argued Syria’s post Assad government has consistently favored de-escalation with Israel rather than proxy conflict.
That statement of concern sits alongside a separate, harder fact: the United States remains the supplier of the munitions Israel is using in these strikes, and nothing about the current posture involves slowing that flow. Turkey, which shares a long border with Syria and has its own stake in the country’s stability, has continued moving additional vehicles and armor into Syria despite Israeli warnings, leaving both governments daring the other to be the one that actually escalates first.
