Moscow: Turkey’s downing of Russia plane undermines Syria talks

Moscow says Turkey’s November 24 downing of a Russian military aircraft undermines the ongoing international negotiations for peace in Syria.

Russia’s Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said on Tuesday that the downing of the fighter jet has strained the multi-party efforts for a peace deal in Syria.

The Austrian capital, Vienna, has recently hosted two rounds of talks on the crisis in Syria. The parties to the negotiations seek to agree on an initial list of legitimate opposition groups for engaging in talks with the Syrian government.

Zakharova said Turkey’s shooting down of the Russian Su-24M plane “made the Vienna talks difficult,” adding that the incident has prompted Russia to get other parties to agree on a list of “terrorist” groups in Syria before the next round of negotiations.

She said without such a list, the parties to the Vienna talks could not agree on a coordinated action in Syria.

In the November 24 incident, one of the Russian pilots was killed by militants after landing, the other was rescued by the Syrian forces. One Russian serviceman also died during the rescue operation. 

Trading accusations

Russia dismisses Ankara’s claims that the fighter jet violated the Turkish airspace and says it was downed in the Syrian airspace, where the Russian air force has been carrying out combat sorties against positions of Takfiri terrorists since September 30 upon a request by the Syrian government.

Moscow has also said that it has information on Turkey’s involvement in oil trade with the Takfiri Daesh terrorists in Syria.

On Tuesday, Turkish Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu accused Moscow of trying to “cover up” what Ankara terms as violating Turkish airspace with “unfounded” claims over Turkey’s illegal importing of oil from Daesh.

“It is not possible to cover up the violation of the Turkish airspace with unfounded accusations against Turkey.”

In reaction to the remarks by Turkey’s prime minister, Zakharova said, “We had this information (on oil trade) before and we were working with our partners, with Turkey, with the coalition, with our Western colleagues on this matter but we didn’t do it publicly.”

“We tried many times to convince them to change their approach to this matter, to their relationship with various organizations,” the Russian Foreign Ministry official added.

Syria’s President Assad favors peace

On Monday, Syrian President Bashar al-Assad said Damascus was ready to engage in peace talks on the crisis in Syria with the mediation of the Czech Republic.

Assad said in an interview with Czech TV, to be aired in full later on Tuesday, that he favors a deal reached in Prague rather than in Paris, France, a country he accuses of supporting terrorists operating in Syria.

“Naturally, if you ask Syrians they will tell you they don’t want a peace conference in France, for example, because France supports terrorism and war, not peace,” President Assad said, adding, “And as you mention Prague, it would be generally accepted because of the balanced position of your country.”

The Czech embassy in Damascus is reportedly playing a very active role in communication between the Syrian government and the West in a bid to help end more than four years of bloodshed in the Arab country which has killed over 250,000 people.

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