Israel and Russia try to defuse tensions after Russian spy plane is shot down by Syrian air defenses.

An Il-20 similar to the one shot down. BBC/Getty. 

Israel and Russia are attempting to defuse tensions after a Russian spy plane was shot down by Syrian forces responding to an Israeli attack. BBC. 15 Russians died in the attack. Both the Russians and Israelis are blaming each other for the disaster. The attack happened after four Israeli F-16's launched an attack on Syria's city of Latakia. The Israelis did not give the Russians much time as a warning and used the IL-20 as radar cover and then the Syrians shot it down. Russia and Israel are expected to make amends as they have a very close relationships. Israel is deeply involved in the Syria conflict and have been bombing Iranian targets in Syria for quite some time. 

My Comment:

A potentially dangerous situation in Syria has been diffused. There were some fears that this could have dangerous repercussions up to and including war but as usual those people were wrong. I doubt there are going to be any long term consequences from this incident. 

That isn't to say that there won't be any change. I doubt the Israelis will pull this stunt again. I understand why they did it, they did not want to put their pilots at risk. They just overestimated the competence of the Syrian anti-air forces. They thought that the Syrians wouldn't dare to fire at their fighters while the Russian spy plane was in the area. They were wrong. I doubt they will do this again. 

This is a huge embarrassment for Russia. Their Syrian allies embarrassed them and killed quite a few of their airmen. My guess is either they didn't bother to tell the Syrians that their plane was in the air or they did tell them and the Syrians fired anyways. Either way that is hugely embarrassing for Russia.  Having your allies shoot down your spy plane in a failed attempt to shoot down your other allies jets bombing your first allies is kind of pathetic really. 

It is strange that the Russians had a spy plane in the area in the first place. What were they doing there? Probably tailing any American or NATO forces in the Mediterranean. It's possible that they were spying on the Israelis as well. Of course flying a plane in a war zone is always risky. 

This whole incident shows how messed up the Syrian war is. Russia and Israel are essentially allies but they are on opposite sides of the Syria conflict. Israel hates Iran who is propping up the Syrian regime but both Iran and Syria are allies with Russia as well. And that's not including the Americans, Europe, the Gulf States, the Kurds, the Rebels and the Jihadists. It's a complete mess. 

There were rumors that the French were involved in this strike as well. I don't know how true those rumors are but we recently found out that the French were on the ground in Syria fighting ISIS. I would not be surprised if they were also involved in these Israeli strikes against Iranian targets, though as far as I know they have denied it. 

I do expect these strikes to continue. Israel considers Iran and their Hezbollah allies/proxy army to a be a huge threat. Russia tolerates these attacks because they don't actually care about Hezbollah at all. And the Syrians have been completely unable to stop them. That means we should expect Israeli airstrikes to continue as long as Iran has a presence in Syria even after the war reaches its conclusion.