"Two meetings, held almost simultaneously towards the end of December, offered a stark illustration of the competing strategic visions now shaping the Eastern Mediterranean and the Levant. In Damascus, Turkiye's foreign, defence and intelligence chiefs met Syrian officials on December 22 as Ankara continued to prioritise the consolidation of state authority and stabilisation after the fall of Bashar al-Assad's government in Syria."
"While officially framed around energy cooperation and regional connectivity, the trilateral agenda between Israel, Greece and Cyprus has steadily expanded to encompass security coordination and military alignment, signalling a shift from economic competition to strategic containment. For Cem Gurdeniz, a retired admiral and one of the architects of Turkiye's Blue Homeland maritime doctrine that calls for Ankara to safeguard its interests across the surrounding seas the Aegean, Eastern Mediterranean and the Black Sea the meeting was an attempt to exclude and encircle Turkiye."
Two near-simultaneous December meetings revealed competing strategic visions across the Eastern Mediterranean and the Levant. Turkiye's foreign, defence and intelligence chiefs met Syrian officials in Damascus to prioritise consolidation of state authority and post-conflict stabilisation. Israel hosted Greece and Cyprus in a trilateral framework that has expanded from energy cooperation and connectivity to security coordination and military alignment. Israel carried out another air attack on Syria, one of more than 600 strikes in 2025, signalling willingness to disrupt Syria's recovery. Turkish strategist Cem Gurdeniz described the trilateral as an attempt to exclude and encircle Turkiye and characterised Israel's approach as indirect containment aimed at inducing behavioural change without war.
Read at www.aljazeera.com
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