On September 23, the Israeli military rejected the Russian statement that it is responsible for the downing of the Il-20 intelligence plane on September 17 and insisted that the coordinate mechanism with Russia was used properly prior to the incident.
“The deconfliction mechanism operated in the relevant timeframe (as it has been operating over the last two and a half years,” the Israeli military said in an official statement.
Furthermore, the Israeli military repeated its claims that the Israeli Air Force (IAF) warplanes were in Israeli airspace at the time of the downing of the Russian plane. The Israeli military went on to blame Syria for the incident once again and vowed to continue its operations against Iranian forces in the war-torn country.