Turkey firmly rejected on Wednesday what it called “untenable allegations” by Israel regarding its military position in Syria, after Israel bombed a Syrian air base near the Turkish border and said Syria ​was on the verge of permitting Turkish troops to deploy there.

Israel carried out airstrikes against ‌the Abu al-Duhur base near Aleppo on Tuesday, drawing condemnation from Turkey and criticism from a U.S. envoy who called the attack an “unnecessary escalation”.

In a statement, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office said late on Tuesday that ​Syria was on the verge of violating a “status quo agreed with Israel in security matters” ​by allowing Turkish troops to deploy at the airbase, adding that such a ⁠deployment would threaten Israel’s security and it would not tolerate this, Reuters reported.

In response, Turkey’s presidency said the “imputations” ​from Netanyahu’s office stemmed from his intention to pursue “expansionist and destabilising policies” ahead of elections in ​Israel, adding that lasting regional peace could only be achieved if Israel respected international law and abandoned its “aggressive and coercive policies”.

“The untenable allegations put forward by the Israeli Prime Minister’s Office are intended to legitimise Israel’s unlawful airstrikes ​targeting Syria’s sovereignty and territorial integrity,” it said on X, without explicitly referring to any potential deployment ​plans.

“Turkey will resolutely continue to cooperate with the Syrian Government on a legitimate basis for the establishment of ‌peace, stability, ⁠and prosperity in Syria, and will never allow the destabilisation of Syria.”

The strikes on Tuesday follow worsening security tensions between Israel and Turkey and increasingly sharp rhetoric between the two countries over Syria, where both countries’ militaries are active.

Turkey, which has NATO’s second-largest army and has emerged as one ​of Syrian President Ahmed ​al-Sharaa’s main allies, accuses ⁠Israel of trying to destabilise Syria and undermine its new administration, repeatedly calling for international pressure and measures on Israel to respect Syria’s territorial integrity.

Ankara ​has been training Syria’s army, helping it rebuild its state institutions and ​infrastructure, and ⁠providing military and diplomatic support.

Last year, Turkey and Israel — also sharply at odds over the war in Gaza — established a line of communication to avoid any incidents in Syria.

Tom Barrack, the U.S. special presidential ⁠envoy for ​Syria and Iraq, told Reuters after the strikes on Tuesday ​that Washington was working to establish a deconfliction mechanism among Israel, Turkey and Syria, and added the U.S. already facilitates an ​information-sharing and dialogue mechanism among the parties.

Humanoid robots are set to face a tougher football challenge at the second World Humanoid Robot Games in Beijing, with larger playing fields, more teams and improved technology testing the limits of the machines.

The qualifying round began on August 11, with the matches also serving as a technical test ahead of the main event, which opens on August 22.

The games, jointly hosted by the Beijing municipal government and China Media Group, are the world’s first multi-sport competition dedicated to humanoid robots.

The inaugural event in 2025 attracted 280 teams from 16 countries, with more than 500 robots taking part.

This year’s competition features football and table tennis. In medium-sized robot football, teams have expanded from three players to five, while the pitch is almost twice the size of those used last year.

The larger field is expected to test the robots’ ability to perceive their surroundings, track their position and navigate in real time.

Under the rules, the robots must operate autonomously without direct human control. The larger playing area reduces their effective scanning range and increases the risk of positioning errors as matches become more competitive.

To compensate, some teams have programmed their robots to turn their heads more frequently to scan the field and identify reference points.

“When the robot scores a goal or performs a goal kick, an indirect or direct free kick, it will turn its head to re-search for feature points,” said Cheng Junming, a participant from Beijing Information Science and Technology University.

He said the technique provides a second form of positioning to help correct the robot’s location.

The robots have also been designed to move in increasingly human-like ways, reflecting advances in both performance and entertainment.

Teams are using reinforcement learning to train robots to control and dribble the ball, while depth cameras help them detect the ball and establish its position relative to the robot.

These developments are allowing the machines to move with greater coordination and play football in a way that more closely resembles human players, Cheng said.