The United States and its allies Britain and France launched a much-anticipated strike in Syria around 4 a.m. local time April 14. Despite the late hour, Ankara was wide awake. Senior government officials watched US President Donald Trump's remarks live (which were made the night of April 13 US time). While his statement was somewhat vague, from Ankara's perspective Trump was clear on two issues: Britain and France are allies, and Syria, Iran and Russia are foes.

Turkey’s Syria policy can hardly be called consistent except for one goal: overthrowing the regime of President Bashar al-Assad. Officials in Ankara compete over bragging rights for who has greater disdain for the Assad regime. They were pleased to hear Trump call Assad "a monster" and make reference to a "very terrible regime."

Pro-government media outlets did not report that in his initial speech April 13, Trump named four Middle Eastern countries (Qatar, Egypt, the United Arab Emirates and Saudi Arabia) as friends — Turkey was not among them. There was good reason for Trump’s omission, as Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan had posed April 4 in a three-way handshake in Ankara with Russian President Vladimir Putin and Iranian President Hassan Rouhani.

Immediately after the airstrikes, US Defense Department officials announced that the goal was to destroy Assad’s chemical weapons program. The United States clearly stated that these strikes were conducted neither to alter the course of current US policy nor to depose the Assad regime.