Israel promises not to allow new incidents with Russian military aircraft in Syria
The TASS news agency reported citing the director of the Israeli Foreign Ministry’s Euro-Asia Department Jacob Livne that Israel would do everything to ensure that incidents similar to the tragedy with the Russian military aircraft Il-20 do not happen again.
According to him, immediately after the crash, the head of the Israeli Air Force arrived in Moscow and handed data about the incident to the Russian authorities. “The situation is quite clear, transparent, we handed over all information to our Russian colleagues,” said Livne.
Earlier, the Deputy Director General of the Foreign Ministry Euro-Asia Department of Israel Alex Ben-Zvi reported that Russian and Israeli military continue to remain in contact despite the crash of the Il-20. According to him, there is a “mechanism of resolving conflicts” between the two parties.
The Russian Il-20 aircraft was shot down over the Mediterranean Sea on September 17th. According to the Russian Ministry of Defense, the plane was shot down by the Syrian Air Defense. The Russian Defense Ministry accused Israel of the crash stating that it used the Russian airplane as cover. The crash of the aircraft killed 15 Russian military men. After the incident with the Il-20, Russia sent to Syria the S-300 anti-aircraft missile system.