The tensions between Russia and the United States escalated to a whole new level over the downing of a Syrian jet by U.S. led coalition forces as increased the risks of a direct confrontation between the two nuclear superpowers. Russia on Monday threatened to target International coalition aircraft flying over Syria in a sign of the mounting tensions in the region after an American fighter jet downed the Syrian government’s warplane. The Russian defense ministry said it was also pulling out of an agreement with the US intended to avoid mid-air clashes over Syria. A war in a relatively small country is now risking the triggering of a serious international conflict. The military move followed after angry condemnation from Kremlin, which has long been an ally of the incumbent Syrian President Bashar Al- Assad. The Russian defense ministry said, “Any aircraft, including the international coalition’s planes and drones, discovered west of the river Euphrates, will be tracked by ground and air-based anti-aircraft defenses as aerial targets”.
The United States' military command has indicated that its anti-ISIS operations would continue in the region including in the West of Euphrates but would adjust flight missions as necessary. General Joseph Dunford, Chairman of the US Joint Chiefs of Staff, said that the United States is attempting to re-establish the “de-confliction” agreement with Moscow, which enables Russian and American fighters to fly over Syria without shooting at each other. He added, “The Russian Federation has indicated that their purpose in Syria, like ours, is to defeat ISIS, and we’ll see if that’s true here in the coming hours”.
While Russia has taken a hard stance against the United States over the downing of the Syrian jet, it hopes for no direct military confrontation with the United States. Viktor Ozerov, chairman of the defense and security committee in Russia’s upper house of parliament, said Russia would seek to avoid shooting down US aircraft, “We won’t let anyone do to our pilots what they did to the Syrian plane…..We will track these targets, and at the first threat to the wellbeing and life of our military or the loss of our aircraft, we could well move from tracking [them] to destroying [them]. But we’re counting on not having to go that far.”
The US defended its actions by saying that the Syrian plane was bombing in rebel areas that are supported by the United States and several warnings were given before the shooting took place.
