The Pentagon announced support of communication channels with Russia in order to avoid incidents in Syria
The U.S. Department of defense continues to maintain contact with Russia for conflict prevention in Syria. The head of the Pentagon James Mattis said at a press briefing held aboard the path of Minister to Germany.
“We have a very active line of communication to prevent conflict”, — quotes Mr. Mattis, the press service of the Pentagon.
According to the Minister, communication lines span multiple levels, “from the Chairman of the joint chiefs of staff and Secretary of state with their Russian colleagues in Moscow — General Gerasimov and Minister Lavrov”.
“We don’t open fire neither of whom, except the opponent, except for IG (banned in Russia “Islamic state”). The only exception is self defense, if someone aimed at us — for example, bombing us, or leads us to the fire,” said James Mattis.
18 June in the course of the Syrian conflict, an incident occurred which seriously affected the Russian-American relations: the coalition, led by the U.S. the plane was shot down by government forces, the su-22.
Damascus has called the incident “a flagrant violation of the sovereignty of the country.” In turn, the defense Ministry announced the termination of cooperation with the US in the framework of the bilateral Memorandum on safety of aviation in the Syrian campaign.