Sunday, September 23rd., 2018
Russian MoD: Israel Violated Agreement With Russia to Prevent Incidents in Syria
The
Israeli Air Force misled Russia by providing wrong information about
the area of the planned air strikes in Syria on September 17, thus
preventing the Russian Il-20 from moving to a safe zone, Russian Defense
Ministry spokesman Maj. Gen. Igor Konashenkov said on Sunday.
Speaking
at a press briefing on Sunday, Russian Defense Ministry spokesman Maj.
Gen. Igor Konashenkov provided more details on the downing of the
Russian Il-20 military aircraft near Syria on September 17.
"Today, we share
detailed information about the crash of the Ilyushin IL-20 airplane
of the Russian Aerospace Forces near the Syrian coast on September 17.
We will present a minute-by-minute account of this tragic incident that
was made based on the objective radar readings including those from the
Plotto air information display system," he said.
According to Konashenkov, the Israeli
Air Force provided Russia with misleading information on the area of its
airstrikes on targets in Syria, which prevented the commander of the
Il-20 plane from relocating to the safe zone and led to its destruction.
"During the
negotiations via the deconfliction channel, the representative of the
Israeli Air Force Command reported that the targets assigned to the
Israeli aircraft are located in Northern Syria … As you can see on the
map, the Israeli jets delivered strikes in Latakia which is a western
province of the country — and not in the north of the Syrian Arab
Republic. The city of Latakia is located on the western coast. The
misleading information provided by the Israeli officer about the area
of strikes did not allow the Russian Il-20 airplane to move timely to a
safe area," Konashenkov said.
Israel Notified Russia Too Late
Konashenkov told a briefing that the Israeli Air Force had notified Russia of its planned attacks on Syrian targets simultaneously with the beginning of the strikes instead of doing it in advance, thereby violating 2015 bilateral agreements to prevent such incidents in Syrian airspace.
"Israel did not
inform the Russian force about its operation in advance — but rather
they issued a warning simultaneously with the beginning of the strikes,
which constitutes a breach of the agreements. These actions constitute a
clear violation of the 2015 Russian-Israeli agreements, which are aimed
at preventing clashes between our armed forces, in and over Syria, that
were reached by the joint working group," Konashenkov said.