Trump envoy 'deeply concerned' by Israeli strikes on Syrian air base

US special envoy for Syria Tom Barrack defended the Syrian government on Tuesday after Israeli air strikes targeted the Abu al-Duhur military air base in northern Syria, calling it an "unnecessary escalation".

"The Al-Sharaa government has neither adopted a predatory posture nor maintained proxy forces. It has, in fact, repeatedly indicated a preference for de-escalation with Israel," he wrote on X.

"We are deeply concerned," he added. "[This] does not advance regional stability."

Israel has not confirmed it was behind the attack, but Barrack said it was responsible.

His comments followed a meeting with Syrian Foreign Minister Asaad al-Shaibani in Istanbul, Turkey, one day earlier.

The Syrian government condemned the attack and said eight strikes hit the runway of the defunct air base in the early morning hours of Tuesday, local time.

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said the strikes followed a visit by a Turkish military delegation to the airfield in recent days "as part of efforts to reactivate it".

Since former Syrian President Bashar al-Assad fled to Russia in December 2024, Israel has consistently targeted sites along Syria's western border and its north, focusing on degrading the Syrian air force.

It has also sent ground troops into a United Nations-operated buffer zone between the two countries.

But talks have also been held between the two sides, Syrian President Ahmed al-Sharaa confirmed last year.

'We want to rebuild Syria'

Syria and Israel do not have formal relations. In 1967, Israel seized the Golan Heights from Syria and illegally annexed the territory. However, under the rule of Hafez al-Assad, they signed a disengagement agreement that established a security regime on their border.

“Because we want to rebuild Syria, we didn’t respond to these aggressions,” Sharaa previously told The Washington Post of the thousands of Israeli air strikes in his country.

He added that Israel’s claim that it was targeting Shia militants with ties to Iran was false, noting that "we are the ones who expelled those forces out of Syria".

“The advances that Israel made into Syria are not coming from [their] security concerns but are coming from their expansionist ambitions,” he said.

Last month, Shaibani condemned "the continuation of Israeli military actions" and warned that "the unlawful occupation of our land beyond the 1974 line is a direct threat to the security of the region".

Israeli officials, as recently as last week, said they planned to keep troops in Syria.

"The United States has in the past, and will continue in the future, to host discussions to encourage diplomatic cadence over kinetic frustration for both nations," Barrack said on Tuesday.

"The United States continues to believe that restraint and engagement offer the more constructive course. We encourage all parties to prioritize logical discourse over further military incidents."