Mossad director and Syria’s foreign minister held talks on Turkish military deployments before Israeli strikes

Before Israel bombed the Abu al-Duhur military airfield in Syria’s Idlib province on August 18, 2026, there were phone calls. The head of Mossad and Syria’s foreign minister had spoken directly about Turkish military activities at the site, according to sources cited by Reuters. That diplomatic back-channel failed to avert the strikes, but its existence says a great deal about how fast the post-Assad Middle East is being redrawn. Israel’s Prime Minister’s Office confirmed the operation, framing it as a response to Syria’s imminent violation of a security arrangement. The core complaint: Turkey was moving to station troops at Abu al-Duhur, a move Israel had warned, explicitly and in advance, would cross a red line. What happened at Abu al-Duhur The Abu al-Duhur airfield sits in the eastern Idlib countryside, a stretch of Syrian territory that has changed hands repeatedly over years of civil war. With the Assad government gone since December 2024, the new Syrian leadership backed by Turkey has been rebuilding state institutions, and that includes the military. A Turkish military delegation had recently visited the airbase to assess the runway for rehabilitation work. Israel interpret...