Hailing ‘smart’ Erdogan for ‘taking over Syria,’ Trump offers to mediate between him and Israel
‘If you have a problem with Turkey, I really think I’m going to be able to work it out,’ US president tells Netanyahu, but ‘you have to be reasonable’
US President Donald Trump on Monday touted himself as a mediator between Israel and Turkey in their struggle over politically fragile Syria, where both countries are jostling for influence.
Trump, speaking alongside Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu at the White House, said negotiations could be helped by his “great relations” with Turkish leader Recep Tayyip Erdogan, whom he said he likes very much and called “very smart.”
Turkey is a key backer of the Islamist-led coalition in Syria that toppled Bashar al-Assad in December after almost 14 years of civil war.
Trump appeared to acknowledge Turkey’s dominance in Syria, saying he told Erdogan he had “taken it over through surrogates.”
“I said, ‘Congratulations, you’ve done what nobody’s been able to do in 2,000 years. You’ve taken over Syria.’ With different names, but same thing,” Trump said.
“I told the [Israeli] prime minister, I said, ‘Bibi, if you have a problem with Turkey, I really think I’m going to be able to work it out,'” Trump told reporters, using Netanyahu’s nickname.
“You know, I have a very, very good relationship with Turkey and with their leader, and I think we’ll be able to work it out,” he added. “As long as you are reasonable, you have to be reasonable.”
Erdogan is an avowed supporter of Hamas and one of the leading critics of Israel on the world stage. He was quoted in a speech two weeks ago calling on Allah to “destroy Zionist Israel.”
Israel has carried out a campaign to destroy Syrian military capabilities so that they cannot threaten Israel, and fears that if Turkey establishes a military presence in Syria, it could hamper the Israeli Air Force’s freedom of action in the region.
Netanyahu voiced Israeli concerns over Turkish influence in Syria while touting the US president as a mediator.
“We’ve had neighborly relations with Turkey that have deteriorated, and we don’t want to see Syria being used by anyone, including Turkey, as a base for attack in Israel,” he said.
“We discussed how we can avoid this conflict in a variety of ways, and I think we can’t have a better interlocutor than the president of the United States for this purpose,” Netanyahu added.
On Saturday, Reuters reported that Turkey scoped out at least three airbases in Syria where it could deploy forces as part of a planned joint defense pact, before Israel hit the sites with airstrikes.
The Israeli strikes on the three sites Turkey was assessing, including a heavy barrage on Wednesday night, came despite Ankara’s efforts to reassure Washington that a deeper military presence in Syria was not intended to threaten Israel, the report said, citing four people familiar with the matter.
The Islamists replacing Assad have alarmed Israel, which is wary of an Islamist presence on its border and has lobbied the United States to curb Turkey’s growing influence in the country.
Ankara, a longtime backer of opposition to Assad, is positioning to play a major role in the remade Syria, including with a possible joint defense pact that could see new Turkish bases in central Syria and use of Syria’s airspace.
In preparation, Turkish military teams in recent weeks visited the T-4 and Palmyra airbases in Syria’s Homs province and the main airport in Hama province, according to a regional intelligence official, two Syrian military sources and another Syrian source familiar with the matter.
Turkish teams evaluated the state of the runways, hangars and other infrastructure at the bases, the regional intelligence official said.
Another planned visit to T-4 and Palmyra on March 25 was cancelled after Israel struck both bases just hours beforehand, according to the regional intelligence official and the two Syrian military sources.
Strikes at T-4 “destroyed the runway, tower, hangars and the planes that were grounded. It was a tough message that Israel won’t accept the expanded Turkish presence,” said the intelligence official, who reviewed photographs of the damage.
“T-4 is totally unusable now,” said a fourth Syrian source, who is close to Turkey.
Turkey’s foreign ministry on Thursday called Israel “the greatest threat to regional security.” On Friday, Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan told Reuters that Turkey wanted no confrontation with Israel in Syria.
“We don’t want to see any confrontation with Israel in Syria because Syria belongs to Syrians,” Fidan said.
The Times of Israel Community.