Israel reacts on Russian MoD statement of blaming it for Il-20 downing incident
The Israel Air Force misled the Russian side by providing wrong information about the area of the planned air strikes in Syria on September 17, thus the Russian Il-20 couldn’t move to a safe zone, Russian Defense Ministry spokesman Maj. Gen. Igor Konashenkov said on Sunday.
On Sunday afternoon the IDF spokesman said that “An IDF delegation, led by the Commander of the Israeli Air Force, Maj. Gen. Amikam Norkin, presented the complete IDF After Action Review (AAR) of the downing of the Russian plane by Syrian anti-air fire to senior Russian military officers.”
“The AAR was conducted and presented in a thorough, detailed and professional manner. The comprehensive, accurate and factual details are known to the relevant professionals in the Russian military, and they clearly state that:” the Spokesman tweeted.
“The deconfliction mechanism operated in the relevant time-frame (as it has been operating over the last two and a half years); the IAF did not hide behind any aircraft and that the Israeli aircraft were in Israeli airspace at the time of the downing of the Russian plane.”
“The continuation of the coordination is a shared interest in light of the various regional challenges.”
“In addition, as we saw during this incident, the use of advanced weapons by irresponsible entities significantly endangers the area and can severely harm forces operating in the region.”
The IDF spokesperson ended up his speech with ” The Israel military will continue to operate in accordance with the directives of the Israeli Government against Iran’s incessant attempts to establish itself in Syria and to arm the terrorist organization Hezbollah with lethal and accurate weapons.”
Read more: WATCH how Israeli jets used Russian Il-20 as cover prior to downing it in Mediterranean – MoD