Syrian Foreign Minister Asaad Al-Shaibani responded to statements by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, in which he justified the Israeli military strike on the Abu Al-Duhur military airport in Syria, and what he raised about the presence of Turkish forces at the airport.
Al-Shaibani confirmed that “there is no intention to establish a Turkish military base at Abu Al-Duhur Airport, or establish a permanent Turkish military presence or deploy Turkish forces there,” noting that the airport did not witness any Turkish military buildups before it was subjected to an Israeli strike on Wednesday, according to what was reported by the Syrian “SANA” news agency.
Al-Shaibani said, in written responses to questions from the Axios news site: “There was no intention to establish a Turkish base there, nor to establish a permanent Turkish military presence or deploy Turkish forces at the site.”
The Syrian Foreign Minister pointed out that "the Israeli raids that targeted Abu al-Duhur Airport in northern Syria are not based on any legitimate justification, and that the Syrian government made clear to the Israeli side that there is no Turkish military buildup at the airport."
Al-Shaibani explained that “Abu Al-Duhur Airport was almost empty at the time of the Israeli attack, and its rehabilitation work had not been completed, nor was it fully ready for operation, as the works there were still in the rehabilitation stage,” according to SANA.
Asaad Al-Shaibani went on to say: “There was no Turkish military buildup at the base in any way that would justify such an explanation,” and stressed that “linking the attack to a Turkish military presence at the airport is not based on the field situation that existed at the time.”
Netanyahu defended the Israeli strike on Syria's Abu al-Duhur Airport, reiterating that Türkiye - a US NATO ally and one of Israel's most prominent regional adversaries - was intent on deploying forces there.
Netanyahu said in a video clip published by the Likud Party: “We will not tolerate any Turkish military buildup heading south and threatening us. We made that clear in general... Then we saw that there was a Turkish intention to deploy forces at an air base south of its line, near Aleppo, so we informed them of that.”
“How do I describe it?” he continued, adding that “the message was: Don’t.”
On Tuesday evening, Netanyahu acknowledged that Israel carried out the strike because it believed that Türkiye would deploy military capabilities at the air base south of Aleppo. He said that this publication would disrupt the “status quo on security matters” that Israel and Syria had accepted.
On Tuesday, the US envoy to Syria, Tom Barrack, criticized Israel's moves and described them as "an unnecessary escalation that does not contribute to stability in the region."
Turkey rejected Netanyahu's claims as "baseless," citing the upcoming October elections in Israel as a reason for what it described as "Netanyahu's intention to pursue expansionist and destabilizing policies in the region."
In two letters to the Secretary-General of the United Nations, António Guterres, and the President of the UN Security Council, Christina Lassen, Syria condemned in the strongest terms what it described as a “blatant attack” launched by the Israeli army on the Abu al-Duhur military airport in Idlib Governorate, at dawn on Tuesday, and considered it an “unjustified aggression” and “a blatant violation of Syria’s sovereignty and territorial integrity,” and a dangerous escalation that threatens security and stability in the region, according to what SANA reported.
