Israel confirmed late Tuesday that it was behind overnight airstrikes against a Syrian military airport, where it claimed Turkey was planning to deploy forces.

“Israel 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,” said Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office in an English-language statement.

The Prime Minister’s Office said Israel “repeatedly warned Syria that such a deployment would pose a threat to Israel’s security.”

“Syria chose to ignore these warnings,” Netanyahu’s office said, adding that Israel “will not tolerate threats to its security, and would welcome a return to the status quo.”

In response, Ankara decried “the frivolous allegations put forward by the Israeli Prime Minister’s Office,” according to a Turkish government statement quoted by the Anadolu state news agency, saying they “aim to legitimize Israel’s unlawful airstrikes targeting Syria’s sovereignty and territorial integrity.”

An unnamed Turkish official also denied to Axios that Ankara was seeking to establish a military presence at the Abu Duhur air base in Idlib province.

“There was no Turkish presence at the airbase. Israel is inventing pretexts to bomb neighboring countries and destabilize the region,” the official asserted.

Deconfliction mechanism

The attack marked extraordinary defiance by Israel of the United States, which has sought to support Syria’s new government led by a former jihadist allied with Turkey. US special envoy for Syria Tom Barrack criticized the strikes as an “unnecessary escalation that does not advance regional stability.”

An Israeli security source cited by the Kan public broadcaster said Israel had intelligence it shared with the US on Turkish efforts to deploy troops at the base, and that the strikes were only........

© The Times of Israel