US President Barack Obama said Washington’s North Atlantic Treaty Organisation ally Turkey had a right to defend its airspace but said his priority was to make sure the standoff did not escalate.
Advertisement
Merkel in response pledged to act “swiftly” to see how Germany could take on “additional responsibilities” to help in the fight against terrorism.
The British premier has called IS a “direct threat to our security at home and abroad” and on Monday offered to let France use the RAF Akrotiri air base in Cyprus when flying missions against the jihadists.
The United States believes that the Russian jet shot down by Turkey on Tuesday was hit inside Syrian airspace after a brief incursion into Turkish airspace, a USA official told Reuters, speaking on condition of anonymity.
“It is too serious an incident that serious consequences are unavoidable… and we are still waiting for realistic explanations from the Turkish side”, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said.
The co-pilot of the Russian Su-24 downed in Syria has reported that he heard no warnings before the jet was shot down, which highlights faults in Turkish technology.
With Russia suffering an Isis-suspected attack on a passenger jet in the Sinai peninsula in October, killing all 224 people on board, Hollande and Putin agreed to greater military cooperation.
Russian officials have bulked up air defenses in northern Syria since the attack, and are intending to give future bombers an escort of fighters to dissuade Turkey from getting into any more battles with them in the skies over Syria.
The ruthless leader branded the incident a “stab in the back” committed by “accomplices of terrorists” while Russian foreign minister, Sergei Lavrov, called it a “planned provocation” by Turkey.
However, the two men remained at odds over the fate of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, an ally of Russian Federation whom Western and Sunni Arab countries blame for Syria’s almost five-year civil war and want removed from power.
Advertisement
French jets on Monday (Nov 23) launched their first air strikes from the Charles de Gaulle aircraft carrier in the eastern Mediterranean.
