Thus, 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 constitute
a breach of the existing agreements. These actions constitute a clear
violation of the 2015 Russian-Israeli agreements aiming to prevent
clashes between our armed forces, in and over Syria, that were
reached by the joint working group.
I would like to stress that 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. The talk was conducted in Russian.
The Russian Defense Ministry has a record of the conversation.
The commander of the Ilyushin IL-20 flying over the north of Syria
received an order to leave the mission area and head south
to return back to the military base. As you can see on the map,
the Israeli jets delivered strikes I 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 provide by the Israeli officer
about the area of strikes did not allow the Russian IL-20 aircraft
to move timely to a safe area.
Therefore, we believe that the blame for the tragedy with the Russian
Ilyushin IL-20 aircraft lies entirely with the Israeli Air Forces
and those who made the decision to carry out such actions.
Now we say that we are ready for any confidential or public talks --
the mediator will be the International Quartet plus other countries.
We welcome any European or Arab countries.
Iran will not abandon its defensive weapons, or reduce
our defensive capabilities. Rather, we will increase our
defensive strength day by day. Because you (the U.S.) are angry
at our missiles, it means that our most influential
weapons are our missiles, so due to your words we
appreciate the value of our missiles more than ever before.
You are asking us not to have a presence in the region
(Middle East), it is you who have come from thousands
of kilometres to this region, to do what?