Arab News- Senior Israeli and Syrian officials met Sunday in an effort to ease tensions after an Israeli strike on a Syrian airbase, Axios reported, citing three sources familiar with the matter.
The meeting between Syrian Foreign Minister Asaad Al-Shaibani and Mossad Director Roman Gofman came days after Israel bombed Abu Al-Duhur airbase in Idlib Governorate, northern Syria, escalating already fraught relations between the two countries.
On Tuesday, Israeli warplanes dropped at least eight bombs on runways and hangars at the base, about 72 km from the Turkish border.
Israel said the strike was intended to prevent a Turkish military buildup, citing intelligence that Turkiye planned to deploy drones and a radar system there. It also warned that it could take military action unless preparations for the deployment stopped.
In talks involving Israel, Syria and the US before the attack, Syrian officials denied that Damascus intended to permit a Turkish military presence at the base, according to Axios.
Israel nevertheless carried out what it described as a “warning shot.”
In recent days, US envoy Tom Barrack and other senior administration officials have urged Israel, Syria and Turkiye to resume dialogue.
Axios noted that the Israeli prime minister’s office declined to comment on Sunday’s meeting, and that a spokesperson for Al-Shaibani did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
However, Al-Shaibani told Axios on Wednesday that Syria had “no intention to establish a Turkish base” at Abu Al-Duhur or allow a permanent Turkish military presence there.
He said Turkish officers had visited the base days before the Israeli strike as part of ongoing cooperation involving training and exchanges of expertise.
He said Damascus conveyed that explanation to Israel before the attack, but that Israel proceeded anyway.
Syria remains open to negotiations aimed at de-escalation and a new security agreement with Israel, Al-Shaibani said. But he added the responsibility could not rest with Damascus alone.
“Israel must also reassess its policy towards Syria and recognize that continued military operations and attacks will not deliver long-term security, but will instead increase instability,” he said.
In an interview with Reuters on Saturday, Al-Shaibani said he expected talks with Israel to resume soon over a proposed security arrangement that Syria hopes would lead to Israel’s withdrawal from Syrian territory. He called on Israel to seize what he described as a “historic opportunity” for diplomacy.
He said the talks had been suspended since the start of the Iran war in late February, and that direct contacts were cut off after the Abu Al-Duhur strike. Syria’s priority, he said, is to stop Israeli attacks, with confidence-building measures needed before diplomacy can advance.
The reported Sunday meeting also followed another Israeli strike Saturday in southwestern Syria. Syrian state television reported that an Israeli drone hit a civilian vehicle near Beit Jinn, in the Rif Dimashq governorate, wounding several people.
Syria’s Foreign Ministry condemned the attack, saying it targeted a civilian vehicle.
Israel’s military confirmed it carried out a strike, saying it targeted a militant whose planned attacks posed an immediate threat to Israeli forces.
Israel has carried out hundreds of strikes in Syria since the December 2024 overthrow of former President Bashar Assad. It has also moved troops into a UN-supervised buffer zone in the Golan Heights that had long separated Israeli and Syrian forces.
Washington has sought for more than a year to broker a security agreement between Israel and the government of Syrian President Ahmed Al-Sharaa. Those efforts have repeatedly stalled amid Israeli military operations in Syria and disagreements over Israel’s continued presence on Syrian territory.
Barrack, who serves as US special envoy for Syria and Iraq and as ambassador to Turkiye, called the Abu Al-Duhur strike an “unnecessary escalation.” On Friday, he said the attack may have been intended to provoke a confrontation with Turkiye ahead of Israel’s upcoming general election.
