Israel's Mossad chief holds rare call with Syrian foreign chief over Türkiye -- media

JERUSALEM, Aug. 19 (Xinhua) -- Israel's Mossad chief Roman Gofman held a phone call last week with Syrian foreign affairs chief Asaad Hassan al-Shibani about Türkiye's military presence in Syria, the first such contact since Gofman assumed leadership of Israel's intelligence agency in June, Israel's state-owned Kan TV reported on Wednesday.

The reported call comes amid escalating tensions between Israel and Türkiye over Ankara's alleged growing military role in Syria.

While Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's office did not immediately comment on the report, Netanyahu addressed the issue in a video posted by his Likud party on social media platform X, stating that Israel would "not tolerate a Turkish military buildup in Syria that threatens Israel."

Referring to Israel's strike on Syria's Abu al-Duhur airbase on Tuesday, he added, "We made the message clear. Apparently, they did not hear it well enough, so we made sure they understood it better."

Israel had said the strike was carried out because Damascus has allowed Turkish forces to deploy there. Türkiye rejected the claim, accusing Israel of violating Syria's sovereignty.

Israeli warplanes carried out eight airstrikes early Tuesday on the runway of the Abu al-Duhur military airport in Idlib province in northwestern Syria. Enditem