Osəd al-Shaybānī, Syria’s foreign minister, told Axios that Damascus has explicitly told Israel that there is no plan to establish a Turkish military base or for Turkey to have a permanent presence at the Abu Zahir airbase, but that Israel nonetheless attacked the site.

al-Shaybānī said: “Our message was very clear: don’t. I guess they didn’t fully understand the message.”

He said there is no increase in Turkey’s military that could justify this attack, adding that the base is largely empty; it has not yet become operational and is still under reconstruction.