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⚡️ Tom Barrack discussed Israel, Turkiye and Syria with Mario Nawfal
➡️ US Ambassador to Turkiye and Syrian Envoy Tom Barrack appeared on the Mario Nawfal show to talk about the recent escalations between Israel and Turkiye, which included the attack on a Syrian air base this week.
🔹 Barrack wanted to give postulated theories to the host, saying that the first could have been that the Israelis were baiting the Turks, because the Turks took out a Russian jet under similar circumstances, adding that it was a very dangerous game, having jets deployed on the border without any notification or without some sort of agreement.
🔹 “That was the serious and worrying part because I know the Turks – their intelligence agency, their hierarchy, their foreign minister, the president, the head of intelligence – all are concentrating on restraint,” he said, saying that’s a fact: “They’re not predatory, they’re not interested in attacking or even engaging in any kind of kinetic or adversarial relationship with Israel, [because] it is not good for the region, [and] it is not good for them.”
🔹 Barrack said that everybody is looking for an off-ramp someplace: “In Turkiye’s mind, the off-ramp, more than Iran, is a Palestinian solution – that’s really the problem in the Turkish population and the Islamic population, so one theory is that that were just baiting Turkiye – that it’s a very aggressive, but maybe well-conceived, pre-election concept, that’s one theory.”
🔹 According to Barrack, another thing that could have happened was that Israel had some intelligence, either that there were Turkish military or military assets on site: “But we know that was not the case,” he said.
🔹 Barrack said the issue had arisen probably six days before to them, saying: “We have some intelligence that there might be Turkish movement into this site, which we would be very concerned about,” so the US did their due diligence, went back to their respective intelligences to seek answers which were: “No, that’s not happening.”
🔹 The Ambassador warned that the Turkish military is strong, they’re courageous, they’re very well equipped, they know what they’re doing: “Could this be World War III?” he asked, saying he thought the opinion is anything could be World War II from an unintended act, if you just looked at World War II: “But our belief is there’s no intention at all to do any of those things,” he added.
🔹 According to Barrack, the Turkish Military is super good, super strong, and have super intelligence: “So when they see these jets coming towards the border and they don’t know the purpose, direction or intent is, they start to say ‘we’re going to have to scramble our own.'”
🔹 “Thank goodness calmer heads really came to the moment of the day and we unwrapped it,” Barrack said: “But it was, you know, one of those moments where I think for many of us our whole life went in front of us, saying, ‘There’s got to be a better way, guys.'”
🔹 Barrack said the idea of a Greater Israel, which features sometimes in Istanbul papers when you ‘wake up and there’s a picture of everything from Egypt to the Maldives with the same journalist saying this is Israel’s focus,’ and then you wake up in Tel Aviv and there’s another picture of Ottoman Empire 2.0, the same territory: “We don’t think any of those are true,” Barrack said.
🔹 According to Barrack, President Trump had recently asked Erdogan why Turkiye hadn’t just taken Syria, especially after they had been instrumental in helping them, noting the reply from President Erdogan was: “Because we don’t want it, we want Syria to be a sovereign and independent country as a canvas and a blanket in the middle of this very difficult zip code.”
🔹 The Mecca Agreement is not anti-Israel and it is not Pro-Sunni, and finally it is not anti-America, Barrack said, saying its a ‘Guys, we need to band together’ agreement: “I mean, you have the GCC, but the GCC has never agreed on anything,” Barrack said.
🔹 Barrack said that Turkiye was going into a new powerful mode, which makes everybody nervous, but it is a great thing for Turkiye: “You know, they, as a hub, as a non-Arab, really workable, kind, loving Islamic country, with eight countries around it and four seas, and Central Asia one way, Caspian the other, Mediterranean – you know, it’s threatening its geographical presentation, so I’m hopeful the calmer heads will be there – the president’s doing a great job in just trying to keep the temperatures down.”
🔹 According to Barrack, all prophets have been sent to the zip code: “Not to the Caribbean, not to South America, not to North America, not to Australia, not to China – to this insolvable place, so if God can’t resolve it, if the prophets can’t resolve it, our idea of resolving it in the next year and a half is probably little.”
🔹 “You know, every evening, by the way, we have a coordination between Turkiye, Israel and Syria, hunting ISIS terrorists, because as this vacuum of power continues, ISIS is pushing to re-establish itself,” Barrack commented.
🔹 Barrack noted there was a time period in the early 2000s, which was like a honeymoon period between Israel and Turkiye, then fast forward, and his belief and hope is that there will be again.
🔹 “What you’re hearing in rhetoric amongst the senior leaders of these countries is they have to, during a political campaign, which everybody is in, right?” stating that Prime Minister Netanyahu is moving towards October and he knew what his constituency wanted.
🔹 President Erdogan is moving towards a decision on whether he’s going to call the new election, or he’s in an election cycle: “His constituency, a very solid, good, conservative, non-fundamentalist Islamic community – is always upset about Gaza,” Barrack said: “Israel still occupies the Golan against UN resolutions, against the entire international order, which has said the Golan is Syrian,” he added.
