U.S. Ambassador to Türkiye Tom Barrack stated that the Israeli strikes on Syrian airfields had been conducted without the knowledge or consent of the Turkish government. Ambassador Barrack revealed that, via their respective intelligence services, the Syrian government and the Israeli Mossad had ascertained prior to the strikes that there were no Turkish military assets in the area.
Barrack laid out the diplomatic efforts the U.S. took to facilitate peaceful Israeli monitoring of Syrian activities — efforts that ultimately fell apart.
“Israel had told us for a preceding five days they were concerned about what was going on,” Barrack stated. “We went to our intelligence agencies. Syria talked to Mossad, gave them the information that there were no Turkish military, there were no Turkish convoys, there were no Turkish armaments, and that there was nothing adversarial or offensive going on. That was on Friday. They were supposed to meet again the next week.”
Despite that, Israel struck — without warning Ankara.
“Something went wrong,” Ambassador Barrack continued. “And they decided in the last minute to bomb the craters on the two runways. The problem was that the Turkish side was not notified.”
Hellbound and Down 