Russia denies downing US Reaper, Pentagon declines disclosing if armed

14 Mar 2023

Source: Agencies

By Al Mayadeen English 

The US summons the Russian ambassador to Washington to protest the crash of a US MQ-9 drone into the Black Sea.

A US MQ-9 Reaper drone in Afghanistan, March 2016 (Reuters)

The Russian Defense Ministry denied US allegations and said its fighter jets did not come into contact with the US MQ-9 drone that crashed into the Black Sea earlier, pointing out that the drone crashed due to “sharp maneuvering”.

Earlier, the US European Command claimed that a Russian fighter jet dumped fuel on an American drone over the Black Sea and then collided with it, causing the drone to crash. The White House called the crash a result of “reckless” behavior by Russia.

“The Russian fighters did not use their onboard weapons, did not come into contact with the UAV and returned safely to their home airfield,” the Ministry confirmed.

The Russian Defense Ministry indicated that the US drone fell into the Black Sea on Tuesday morning due to its own sharp maneuvering, confirming that Russian fighters did not come into contact with it and did not use weapons.

“As a result of sharp maneuvering around 09:30 Moscow time [06:30 GMT], unmanned aerial vehicle MQ-9 went into an uncontrolled flight with a loss of altitude and collided with the water surface,” the Ministry said.

The Ministry clarified that on Tuesday morning, the airspace control of the Russian Aerospace Forces had recorded the flight of the US unmanned aerial vehicle MQ-9 over the Black Sea in the region of the Crimean peninsula in the direction of the Russian state border.

The flight of the drone “was carried out with transponders turned off, violating the boundaries of the area of the temporary regime for the use of airspace, established for the purpose of conducting a special military operation, communicated to all users of international airspace and published in accordance with international standards,” the statement read.

It added that Russian fighters from the air defense forces on duty were scrambled in order to identify the intruder.

US summons Russia ambassador over drone crash

Following the incident, the US summoned Russia’s Ambassador to protest the crash, the State Department confirmed.

“We are engaging directly with the Russians, again at senior levels, to convey our strong objections to this unsafe, unprofessional intercept, which caused the downing of the unmanned US aircraft,” State Department Spokesperson Ned Price told reporters.

Price said the Russian Ambassador in Washington has been convened at the State Department Tuesday afternoon and the American ambassador in Moscow registered a “strong objection” to the incident.

The spokesperson said the incident marked a clear violation of international law.

US had to crash drone in Black Sea after damage: Pentagon

On the other hand, the Pentagon claimed that the US military was forced to essentially crash its MQ-9 Reaper surveillance drone because of the damage caused when it was allegedly struck by a Russian jet.

“Because of the damage, we were in a position to have to essentially crash into the Black Sea,” Brigadier General Pat Ryder told reporters, adding that the drone was basically unflyable after the damage.

Ryder said Russia had not recovered the crashed drone at this point.

The Pentagon spokesperson declined to disclose whether the Reaper drone was armed, saying he is not “going to get into the specific profile of this particular aircraft. As you know the MQ-9 does have the ability to be armed.”

Austin not in contact with Shoigu over drone crash

Elsewhere, Ryder said that US Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin has not talked to Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu after the recent incident.

“In terms of Secretary Austin talking to his counterpart, not at this time,” Ryder said. “To my knowledge, DOD [Defense Department] officials have not spoken specifically to Russian authorities on this particular incident.”

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Syrian Sanctions Must Be Lifted!

MARCH 5, 2023

Vanessa Beeley

Posted by INTERNATIONALIST 360° 

SPEAKERS:

Helga Zepp-LaRouche, founder of the Schiller Institute and Chair of Bürgerrechtsbewegung Solidarität (BüSo)

Col. (Ret.) Richard Black, former head of the US Army Criminal Law Division at the Pentagon; former Virginia State Senator

Vanessa Beeley, British activist and writer, expert on Syria

Marwa Osman, needs no introduction. One of the best known Resistance voices from Lebanon.

The West, with all its supposed “values,” is refusing to lift the harsh economic sanctions against Syria. That means that very, very limited aid is reaching the earthquake victims in Syria. Most attempted aid is being blocked. In Türkiye, the death and destruction brought on by the earthquakes has been described as the worst catastrophe in 100 years. Syria, which was hit with the same earthquakes, has millions of people in dire need of immediate help. There is so much which must be built now, to provide shelter and basic human services to these suffering people. How can political figures like German Foreign Minister Baerbock, and in the United States, Secretary of State Antony Blinken, talk about democracy and human rights while refusing to lift the murderous sanctions on Syria?

Blinken has not fired his spokesperson Ned Price, after Price’s horrendous response on Feb. 6 to a journalist. The journalist said, given that the United States still recognizes the Syrian government: “So why not reach out to the Syrian Government? They are in power. They’re the ones that run these rescue operations or aid operations and so on. It would be a great gesture. Another gesture would be to sort of the lift the sanctions that have basically suffocated Syria.”

Price answered: “Said, I’m going to resist the temptation to go into your advocacy rather than questioning. But I will make the point that it would be quite ironic, if not even counterproductive, for us to reach out to a government [that is] responsible for much of the suffering that they have endured.”

These “sanctioning” governments have lost all credibility, with their despicable behavior in regard to the victims of the Turkish-Syrian earthquakes.

Everyone who is a decent human being should demand an immediate lifting of the Caesar sanctions on Syria, which has been hit with sanctions from the United States and many other nations, in an escalating manner, for more than 10 years. Even before the earthquakes, that nation has been suffering more than 90% of its people living in poverty as a result of economic, military, and terrorist actions against it, which escalated in 2011. What is happening against Syria is completely unconscionable. It’s the declaration of bankruptcy of the West if they don’t change their behavior: