Israel's Strike On Latakia Response To Successful Putin-Erdogan Summit - Syrian Parliament

DAMASCUS (UrduPoint News / Sputnik - 23rd September, 2018) Israel's airstrike that targeted the Syrian province of Latakia and led to the crash of Russia's military jet IL-20 was carried out in response to the successful summit of Russian President Vladimir Putin and his Turkish counterpart Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Syria in Sochi, Secretary of the Syrian People's Council Khaled Abboud told Sputnik on Sunday.

On Monday, the two presidents held a meeting in the Russian resort city of Sochi, where they signed an agreement aimed at setting up a demilitarized zone in the Syrian province of Idlib along the contact line of the armed opposition and the government forces by October 15. Russia's IL-20 was shot down as a result of the Israeli Air Force actions later in the day, just a few hours after the summit.

"You cannot fully separate the signing of the memorandum in Sochi from Israel's attack on Latakia and ... the IL-20 crash that took place a few hours after the announcement about [the memorandum]. We are convinced that it was not just an Israeli attack, it was perpetrated under the cover of the United States and Europe," Abboud said.

According to Abboud, the United States, Europe and Israel believe that the agreement on Idlib presents Erdogan not as an aggressor but as a liberator of Syria, which prompted the Israeli side to immediately conduct an attack against Syria in order to undermine the Sochi agreement.

"Israel, backed by the United States and Europe, understands very clearly that this memorandum will see the region enter the state of stability, while the security of the region would lead to the United States leaving the region," he added.

The Russian Il-20 military aircraft, which was 22 miles off the Syrian coast, was shot down on September 17, while returning to the Hmeimim airbase. At the same time, four Israeli F-16 aircraft were bombing Syrian targets in the province of Latakia. According to the Russian Defense Ministry, Israel notified Russia of the airstrikes only a minute before their start and provided misleading information concerning the area of the attack and the location of Israeli F-16 jets. The ministry said that the Israeli pilots used the Russian aircraft as a shield against Syrian air defense systems. As a result, the Il-20 jet was downed by a missile launched by Syria's S-200 air defense system at 10:03 p.m. local time (19:03 GMT). The incident claimed the lives of 15 Russian servicemen.

The Russian Defense Ministry placed the blame for the catastrophe on the Israeli Air Force and on those who had made the decision to carry out the airstrike. According to the ministry's data, the Russian side informed Israel of the tragedy at 10:29 p.m. local time, asking to call off F-16 fighter jets from the area of the incident, however, they continued to remain there until 10:40 p.m., as radars showed. It was not until 10:53 p.m that the Israeli side informed that its jets had left the area, meaning that a total of 50 minutes had passed since the Russian aircraft was hit by a missile.