The Trump administration is publicly rebuking Israel after the longtime U.S. ally carried out airstrikes on a Syrian military base, calling the attack an unnecessary escalation that could undermine stability in the region.
U.S. Ambassador to Turkey Tom Barrack said Washington was “deeply concerned” by the Israeli strikes on Abu al-Duhur Airbase in Syria.
Barrack argued that Syrian President Ahmed al-Sharaa has not taken the same approach as the regime that came before him and has instead signaled that he wants to avoid a wider confrontation with Israel.
According to Barrack, al-Sharaa has not “adopted a predatory posture nor maintained proxy forces” and has “repeatedly indicated a preference for de-escalation with Israel.”
The ambassador said the United States believes diplomacy and restraint remain the better path as tensions continue to simmer across the Middle East.
Barrack said the U.S. “continues to believe that restraint and engagement offer the more constructive course,” urging all parties “to prioritize logical discourse over further military incidents.”
Israel, however, is pushing back against the suggestion that Washington was blindsided.
A senior Israeli official told Fox News that the United States had been informed before the operation.
The official said “highly sensitive intelligence was shared with the United States in advance” of the strike on the air base.
Israel also suggested that al-Sharaa may not have had full control over what was happening at the facility.
“Al-Sharaa understands that he cannot operate like the previous Syrian regime, which maintained proxy forces. It’s possible that he didn’t understand what was going on, or didn’t know,” the Israeli official said.
Reports from Syria: The Abu Al Duhur military base in Idlib, reportedly struck by Israel, is still burning with secondary explosions reported hours later. pic.twitter.com/JTjQLr61fv
— Open Source Intel (@Osint613) August 18, 2026
The dispute creates an awkward split between the Trump administration and one of America’s closest allies at a particularly volatile moment in the region.
Al-Sharaa became Syria’s leader in January 2025 after rebel forces ousted longtime dictator Bashar al-Assad.
Before taking power, al-Sharaa led an Al Qaeda-affiliated organization in Syria, a history that has made his government’s relationship with Washington deeply unusual.
Despite that past, President Donald Trump has moved aggressively to give the new Syrian government room to prove it can stabilize the country and move away from the proxy-war politics that dominated the Assad era.
Trump has expressed support for al-Sharaa’s government and lifted broad U.S. economic sanctions on Syria in late June as part of an effort to encourage reconstruction and regional cooperation.
That makes Israel’s latest strike especially sensitive for Washington.
The White House has spent months trying to prevent the Middle East from sliding into another open-ended conflict while simultaneously backing Israel against serious security threats from Iran and other hostile actors.
The latest clash shows just how difficult that balancing act has become.
Israel appears determined to act when it believes its security is threatened, while the Trump administration is signaling that not every military operation advances the broader American goal of keeping the region from boiling over.
For now, Washington is urging restraint while Israel insists it had intelligence serious enough to justify the strike.
