From the Liveblog of
Wednesday, August 19, 2026
US said to believe Israeli intel on Turkish military buildup in Syria is legitimate; Trump mum on IDF strike
Add ToI as a Preferred Source on GoogleUS President Donald Trump’s administration increasingly trusts Israeli intelligence that purportedly shows Turkish military buildup in Syria is legitimate, Channel 12 reports.
The intelligence was used by Israel to justify a rare strike at a military airbase in northern Syria, which was condemned by Damascus and Ankara.
While US special envoy for Syria Tom Barrack also called out the Tuesday strike, Trump has refrained from doing so.
Asked about it during an interview with Channel 12, Trump again avoided criticizing the strike, as he apparently seeks to maintain publicly warm ties with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and Syrian President Ahmed al-Sharaa.
A US official tells Channel 12 that even though Washington is inclined to believe the Israeli intelligence on the matter, he still wishes that Jerusalem had addressed the matter through non-military means and is increasingly frustrated with Netanyahu’s overall aggressive policies in the region.
Moreover, the US official laments Israel’s refusal to activate a deconfliction mechanism that it had agreed to establish with Syria in January in order to prevent Tuesday’s strike.
The Times of Israel Community.