Ankara not seeking fight with Israel in Syria, Turkish FM says

However, Hakan Fidan stressed that Israel’s repeated strikes in the Arab country were “fueling regional instability.

By JNS

Turkey is not interested in an armed conflict with the Jewish state in Syria, Ankara’s Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan told Reuters on Friday.

However, he stressed that Israel’s repeated strikes in the Arab country are harming the efforts of the government of Ahmed al-Sharaa — leader of the Islamist group Hay’at Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) — to counter threats from hostile elements such as the Islamic State.

The minister added that Jerusalem’s actions were “fueling regional instability.

“We don’t want to see any confrontation with Israel in Syria, because Syria belongs to Syrians,” Fidan was quoted as saying.

Meanwhile, a Qatari report suggested that Ankara has reached an agreement with the new regime in Damascus over the establishment of several Turkish military bases in Syria, including at the strategic T-4 Airbase in central Syria and the Menagh Airbase in the Aleppo region in the country’s north.

Hay Eytan Cohen Yanarocak, a prominent expert on Turkey at the Moshe Dayan Center for Middle Eastern and African Studies at Tel Aviv University, told JNS on March 26 that Turkey’s recent military and political involvement in Syria raises several concerns.

“After the fall of Assad, we know that Turkey replaced Russia as the dominant player in Syria,” said Yanarocak. “When we speak about today’s Syrian regime, it is thanks to Turkey, due to Turkish changes and Turkish strategy.”

Amid unconfirmed reports that Turkey is planning to build a military base in Palmyra in central Syria, the IDF announced on March 25 that it had attacked Syrian military bases in the area, including the T4 Airbase. The message to Turkey appears to have been —  “Please don’t come,” said Yanarocak.

As Israel-Turkey relations have deteriorated to an all-time low, President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan prayed for the destruction of Israel last Sunday, the country’s Türkiye Today online outlet reported.

“We see and know what is happening in Palestine,” Erdoğan said as he led Eid al-Fitr prayers marking the end of Ramadan at the Çamlıca Mosque in Istanbul, according to a translation by Türkiye Today.

“May Allah, for the sake of his name ‘Al-Qahhar,’ destroy and devastate Zionist Israel,” the Islamist Turkish president continued. “And may we all, witnessing what is happening there [in the Gaza Strip], stay united, strong and resilient as brothers; may Allah keep our unity everlasting.”

The Israel Defense Forces in the past week raided an army base in Syria and located and demolished decommissioned tanks, armored personnel carriers and artillery equipment previously used by the former Syrian regime, the Israeli military said in a statement on Saturday.

The mission was carried out by the Paratroopers Brigade under the 210th Division command, the IDF said.

On Wednesday, the military reported a firefight with armed terrorists during operations in the southern Syrian town of Tasil.

The operation, according to the IDF, was aimed at locating and dismantling terrorist assets in the area. During the encounter, soldiers responded to gunfire and reportedly neutralized several combatants through both direct engagement and air support.

Tasil is situated near the demilitarized zone along the Syria-Israel frontier — an area where the Israeli military has been operating since the Assad regime lost control of the region late last year.