Russia yesterday said it might respond to “hostile” actions by Israel after one of its military reconnaissance planes was downed mistakenly by Syrian forces fighting off an attack by Israeli warplanes.
The spike in tensions came a day after Russia called off a campaign against the last major opposition-held area in Syria, preventing for now an escalation in the seven-year war, after Russian President Vladimir Putin and Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan reached a deal on Monday.
Still, unlike a 2015 incident in which Turkey shot down a Russian warplane, sparking a yearlong breach in ties, the Kremlin gave no sign the latest episode would lead to broader consequences.
Photo: AFP
Since sending forces to support the regime of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad in 2015, Russia has been a dominant player in the conflict, at times struggling to manage the competing interests of the other powers there.
Russia has kept close ties with Israel, despite its regular attacks on the Moscow-backed regime in Syria.
Russian Minister of Defense Sergei Shoigu blamed Israel’s “irresponsible” actions for the death of the servicemen in a call with his Israeli counterpart, Avigdor Liberman, the ministry said.
It said Syrian forces mistakenly downed the Il-20 reconnaissance plane with an S-200 air-defense missile as they attempted to fight off an attack by Israeli planes.
The Israeli military laid the blame on Syrian forces, which it said “fired indiscriminately and from what we understand, did not bother to ensure that no Russian planes were in the air.”
The warplanes were already back in Israeli airspace when “extensive and inaccurate” Syrian anti-aircraft fire hit the Russian plane, it said.
Putin and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu were scheduled to speak by phone later yesterday, Israel’s Channel 10 television reported.
In Moscow, amid the anger, there were expectations the fallout might be minimized.
While trust between the Russian and Israeli military will suffer as a result, the two countries “have a lot of common interests, especially in Syria,” said Andrei Kortunov, head of the Russian International Affairs Council, a research group set up by the Kremlin.
“It wasn’t a deliberate act and it wasn’t an Israeli strike that shot the aircraft down, it was a Syrian one,” said Alexander Shumilin, head of the Moscow-based Center for Analysis of Middle East Conflicts.
The Kremlin is “extremely concerned” by the downing of the plane, spokesman Dmitry Peskov said, but declined to comment beyond the defense ministry’s statement.
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