Sergei Lavrov Wednesday made some important statements regarding the chain of events occurred in the SU-24 downing and after witnessing the immediate deployment into service, for a defensive purpose, of the S-400 complex and Moskva, we now witness the first steps of the diplomatic effort made by Moscow to understand exactly what happened.
First he said:
"Some members of the coalition, including those providing their combat planes for strikes against Iraq and Syria have confided to us the planes involved were of US manufacture and the Americans normally request US permission for such operations"
Then Lavrov went even further posing a direct question:
"As far as I understand, our plane was downed by a US-made F-16. It remains to be seen whether the US requirement is applicable to Turkey, and if it is, I would like to know if Turkey had asked the United States for permission to send its planes on a combat mission and to shoot down a plane, albeit probably an identified one, over Syrian territory."
The implications posed by Lavrov's doubts are important and should not be underestimated by western powers. They directly call into question the possible liability of the USA in Ankara's military action and If this were to be the case, the SU-24 downing would take quite a different twist.
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