U.S., Russia set rules for warplanes in Syria
Bid to avoid conflict in air as they target rebels on ground
— The Pentagon and Russian military have agreed on a list of rules designed to ensure the two countries’ pilots will not mistakenly run into — or fire upon — one another as they conduct daily bombing runs in the skies above Syria.
Pentagon spokesman Peter Cook said Tuesday that after weeks of negotiations the U.S. and Russian militaries came to the agreement on how pilots could communicate with each other and other technical details to guard against an accident.
The agreement does not establish zones of cooperation in the two countries’ air attacks or include any sharing of intelligence and target information in Syria, Cook said.
“The discussions through which this (agreement) has developed do not constitute U.S. cooperation or support for Russia’s policy or actions in Syria,” he said. “In fact, far from it. We continue to believe that Russia’s strategy in Syria is counterproductive and their support for the (Bashar) Assad regime will only make Syria’s civil war worse.”
Until an Oct. 1 video conference to discuss the agreement, talks between the two countries’ militaries had stopped because of the Russian annexation of Crimea last year and its continued involvement in the Ukrainian civil war.
The Pentagon has been uneasy about such talks ever since the Russians secretly recorded the first round and used the recordings as propaganda on
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Pentagon officials also have guarded against giving any impression that they are coordinating with Russia.
Cook said specifics of the agreement would not be publicly disclosed at the request of Moscow.
Currently, pilots in the U.S.-led coalition fighting the Islamic State have been instructed to stay at least 20 miles away from Russian aircraft after they’re detected on cockpit radar screens.
U.S. planes have carried out hundreds of airstrikes in Syria as part of a coalition of NATO and Arab air forces.
Since Sept. 30, Russian aircraft have been conducting a separate bombing campaign against rebel poWASHINGTON sitions in support of Syria’s Assad in the 4½-year civil war.
The Pentagon has said Russian aircraft have flown dangerously close to U.S. drones on reconnaissance missions, but there have not been close calls with manned aircraft. Should that happen, the two countries now have a way to address it, Cook said.
“Russians need to abide by these flight safety protocols that they’ve now agreed to, because we don’t want miscalculation and misunderstanding,” he said.
Russian Deputy Defense Minister Anatoly Antonov hailed the agreement, according to the Russian state-owned TASS news agency.
“We regard the signing of the memorandum of understanding between the Russian Defense Ministry and the U.S. Defense Department on the prevention of incidents and ensuring air flight safety in the course of the operation in the Syrian Arab Republic as a positive step,” Antonov said. “Its conclusion shows the high potential of cooperation between Russia and the USA, not least in the fight against terrorism, which we are willing to expand and deepen.”
— Associated Press