ANKARA/PARIS — While Ankara has strong incentives to make renewed US efforts to establish a deconfliction mechanism with Israel in Syria succeed, deep mutual mistrust and Israel’s expanding red lines in the war-ravaged country could complicate efforts to reach a durable arrangement.

Tensions between Turkey and Israel have risen once again this week after Israeli strikes targeted the Abu al-Duhur military airbase in northwestern Syria, roughly 70 kilometers (43 miles) east of the Turkish border, bringing the two countries’ increasing rivalry closer to Turkey’s frontier than at any point since the fall of Bashar al-Assad.

Both the Turkish and the Syrian foreign ministries strongly condemned the attack as an "unjustified provocation" and a violation of Syrian sovereignty. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, in turn, said Syria had been on the verge of violating what Israel described as an agreed security "status quo." 

He said Israel had warned Turkey against establishing a presence at an airport near Aleppo, but concluded Ankara had ignored the message, prompting Israel to act militarily. The comment was an apparent reference to a broader series of contacts between Israel and Syria over Turkey’s possible military role, including an Aug. 14 phone call between Mossad chief Roman Gofman and Syrian Foreign Minister Asaad al-Shaibani, Reuters reported on Wednesday.