DAMASCUS, SYRIA (9:40 P.M.) – The United States decided to re-position fighter jets belonging to the US-led international coalition, Pentagon’s spokesman Adrian Rankine-Galloway told reporters on Monday.
“As a result of recent clashes with Syrian pro-regime and Russian forces, we took precautions to change the disposition of the aircraft in Syria in order to continue fighting Islamic State, while maintaining safety of our pilots – considering the known threats on the battlefield,” he told Interfax agency.
Rankine-Galloway did not give a straight answer regarding Russia’s decision to halt participation in the Memorandum on incident prevention in Syria.
According to him, “the U.S. are always ready to work with the Russians on incident prevention to maintain safety of the coalition’s pilots during combat operations.”
“The direct channel on conflict prevention has proved its effectiveness in terms of decreasing the probability of strategic miscalculations and de-escalation of tensions,” said Rankine-Galloway.
In the meantime, the U.S. are going to work with Russia through diplomatic and military channels in order to restore the incident prevention direct line, head of Joint Chiefs of Staff, Joseph Dunford, told the press on Monday speaking at the conference of National Press club.