Washington works on mechanism to prevent Israel-Syria-Türkiye clashes

The United States is working to establish a mechanism aimed at preventing conflicts between Israel, Syria and Türkiye, US Special Presidential Envoy for Syria and Iraq and Ambassador to Türkiye Tom Barrack said in a phone interview with Reuters.

Barrack described the establishment of such a mechanism as a priority in efforts to manage relations among the three countries, Caliber.Az reports.

“That ​is something we are actively working on to establish in order to prevent future miscommunication,” he said. “The priority now is to ​lower tensions and allow space for a more measured approach.”

The mechanism would serve as a communication channel to prevent misunderstandings or accidental clashes between the armed forces of the three countries.

The diplomat said Ankara had not been warned about Israel’s airstrikes on the Syrian Abu al-Duhur airbase near the Turkish border. According to Barrack, Türkiye had been monitoring the Israeli aircraft and could therefore have “reasonably prepared its own response.”

“Thankfully, calm heads were able to prevent the situation from deteriorating further,” he emphasised.

Barrack also suggested that Türkiye could increase its presence at the airbase targeted by Israel in the near future.

Syria and Israel have held several rounds of talks on de-escalation, but no agreement has been reached. Barrack said the latest incident demonstrated “the need to intensify these efforts and expand the process,” adding that the United States was facilitating the creation of a mechanism for information-sharing and dialogue between the parties.

Earlier, Israeli aircraft carried out four airstrikes on the runway of the Abu al-Duhur military airbase in Syria’s eastern Idlib province.

By Jeyhun Aghazada