Turkey’s foreign minister huddled with top officials Saturday after Syria shot down a Turkish military jet that had apparently entered Syrian airspace, a ministry spokesman said.
Foreign Minister Ahmed Davutoglu chaired meetings about the ongoing search and rescue efforts for the two pilots and their plane, spokesman Selcuk Unal told CNN. The meetings were with Deputy Chief of General Staff Gen. Hulusi Akar and National Intelligence Organization Undersecretary Hakan Fidan, the semi-official Anatolia news agency reported.
Davutoglu also spoke with U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, the foreign ministers of the United States, United Kingdom, France, Russia and Iran, and the European Union foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton, Unal said.
The Syrian military shot down the plane Friday as it flew just off the Mediterranean coast. A Syrian military spokesman said anti-aircraft artillery shot down what was an unidentified aircraft that entered its airspace at a very low altitude and high speed.
While on fire, the jet fell into the sea 10 kilometers, or more than six miles, from the shore of the town of Um Al-Tuyoor, the spokesman said.
Saturday, Syrian state news agency SANA quoted a military spokesman as saying “the target turned out to be a Turkish military plane that entered Syrian airspace and was dealt with according to laws observed in such cases.”
Turkish President Abdullah Gul acknowledged Saturday that the jet may have entered Syria’s airspace, the Anatolia news agency reported.
“When you take in to account the speeds at which jet planes travel over the sea, it is routine for planes to go in and out of borders,” the news agency quoted him as saying.
“It is something that happens without bad intentions and that happens due to the high speeds.”
He added, “It is not possible to cover something like this up. Whatever needs to be done will be done, without a doubt.”
Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan said Turkish assault boats and helicopters as well as Syrian boats were conducting a search along the Mediterranean coast between the Turkish province of Hatay and the northwestern Syrian city of Latakia.
The Syrian military spokesman also said the navies of both countries are cooperating in the search.
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“Davutoglu also spoke with U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, the foreign ministers of the United States, United Kingdom, France, Russia and Iran, and the European Union foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton, Unal said.”
Iran and the US in the same sentence, just shows you how two faced Syria is
All the better for Israel. Let ’em turn against each other, war with each other, and spare Israel the headache of finishing off Syria.