Netanyahu, Putin to diffuse tension after plane downing
ISR AELI Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Russian President V ladimir Putin sought to defuse a crisis on Tuesday after Sy rian defences mistakenly downed a Russian warplane af ter Israeli air st r i kes.
The incident late Monday was the deadliest known case of friendly fire between Syria and its key backer Russia since Moscow’s game-changing 2015 military intervention.
The Ilyushin plane dropped off the radar over the Mediterranean after Turkey and Russia announced a deal that offered millions of people reprieve from a threatened military assault in northern Syria’s Idlib province.
The deadly chain of events started when Israeli missiles struck the coastal region of Latakia.
Israel said it had targeted a Syrian military facility where weapons manufacturing systems were “about to be transferred on behalf of Iran” to Lebanese Shiite group Hezbollah.
It sees Iran’s military presence in Syria as a threat, and Netanyahu told Putin by phone on Tuesday his forces would keep acting against it.
“Israel is determined to stop Iranian military entrenchment in Syria, and the attempts by Iran, which calls for the destruction of Israel, to transfer to Hezbollah lethal weaponry (to be used) against Israel,” said Netanyahu.
Israel expressed “sorrow” for the Russian deaths, but insisted the Russian plane had been felled by “extensive and inaccurate Syrian anti-aircraft (surface-to-air missile) fire”.
Putin said Russia would beef up securit y for its forces in Sy ria, in what he ca lled “steps t hat ever yone will notice”.
The Kremlin said Putin also warned Netanyahu against carrying out such operations in the future.
Putin “reminded” Netanyahu that such operations “violated Syrian sovereignty” and said “agreements around the prevention of dangerous incidents were not observed”.
The plane, downed by Syria’s Russian-made S-200 air defence system, had a crew of 15 who were all killed, Moscow said.
‘Tragic miscalculation’
The Russian military accused Israeli pilots of using “the Russian plane as a cover, exposing it to fire from Syrian air defences”.
Israel denied t he accusations, say ing its jets were a lready back in Israeli airspace when Sy rian forces launched t he missiles t hat hit t he Russian plane.
Russia stressed the incident would have no impact on the Idlib deal, but warned Israel of reprisals and summoned its envoy in Moscow.
US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo also expressed “sorrow” over the Russian deaths, and said the incident showed “the danger of tragic miscalculation in Syria’s crowded theatre of operations”.
The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said some missiles, suspected to be Israeli, did get through the Syrian defences and struck ammunition depots at the site of the technical industries institute.
Rami Abdel Rahman, the head of the Britain-based monitoring group, said at least two fighters were killed and 10 wounded in the strike.
The Syrian blunder came hot on the heels of a major deal announced by Putin and his Turkish counterpart Recep Tayyip Erdogan after talks in the Russian resort of Sochi.
The two key actors agreed to create a demilitarised zone, 15-20 kilometres wide, along the line of contact between rebels and regime troops in the Idlib region.
That would be
October 15.
The demilitarised zone will be secured with the help of “mobile patrol groups of Turkish contingents and contingents of Russian military police”, Putin said.
By the end of the year, transport routes must be restored between Latakia and Aleppo, as well as those linking the port to Hama city, he added. implemented by