Middle East and North Africa

On Aug. 18, Israel attacked the Abu al-Duhur air base in Syria, escalating brewing tensions with Turkey—the United States’ other key ally in the region.

The attack came after Roman Gofman, head of Israel’s Mossad spy agency, spoke to Syrian Foreign Minister Asaad al-Shaibani and warned him against hosting a Turkish military delegation, which Israel suspected would further embed Turkish military capabilities in its neighborhood. Israel saw the visit as a prelude to a permanent Turkish deployment at the base, with air defense radars and armed drones that could limit its ability to hit Iran.

On Aug. 18, Israel attacked the Abu al-Duhur air base in Syria, escalating brewing tensions with Turkey—the United States’ other key ally in the region. The attack came after Roman Gofman, head of Israel’s Mossad spy agency, spoke to Syrian Foreign Minister Asaad al-Shaibani and warned him against hosting a Turkish military delegation, which Israel suspected would further embed Turkish military capabilities in its neighborhood. Israel saw the visit as a prelude to a permanent Turkish deployment at the base, with air defense radars and armed drones that could limit its ability to hit Iran. Turkey’s presidential office dismissed the Israeli airstrike as “unlawful” and called it an attack on “Syria’s sovereignty and territorial integrity,” although it didn’t say whether or not it wished to establish a presence at the base in the future. “No actor other than the nation itself can dictate Turkey’s course or set the boundaries of its foreign policy,” Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said in response to the strikes and Israeli red lines. Israeli strategists fired back and reminded Turkey of how it has repeatedly violated Syrian sovereignty in Kurdish-dominated areas. (Turkey views some of the Syrian Kurdish groups as extensions of the Kurdistan Workers’ Party, a militant organization that has waged an armed insurgency against the Turkish state.) The public spat between key allies, however, has created a new problem for the Trump administration: Can it trust........

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