The Middle East today is a complete mess, isn’t it? Many years ago I chatted with an old engineer who had spent the last fifteen years of his working career with the oil industry all over the Middle East. He spoke about the differences between the countries of course but insisted that what they all had in common was that Arabs were inveterate liars.

It is a generalization of course but what is true is that the first casualty of war is the truth. For several years now there has been a hot war going on in Syria and I have written before that what is most dangerous about this war is that the USA and Russia have forces on the ground and in the air in that country. The Russians are there at the invitation of their long time allay in Damascus and the Americans just went in, in contravention of the UN.

Yesterday, the Syrian Air Force attacked an ISIS stronghold using Russian-made jets. The Americans shot one of these jets down so
Russia today threatened to intercept any aircraft in its area of operations in Syria, according to official Russian news outlets.

According to this source, “The threat came a day after a U.S. warplane shot down a Russian-built Syrian army jet in the southern Raqqa countryside, with Washington saying the jet had dropped bombs near U.S.-backed forces and Damascus saying the plane was downed while flying a mission against Islamic State militants.”

As a result, the Russian Defense Ministry said it will consider as targets any flying objects in areas where its air forces operate in Syria, the TASS news agency reported.This includes aircraft and drones operated by the U.S.-led international coalition west of the Euphrates River, the Defense Ministry said, according to Interfax. The Defense Ministry said the U.S. didn’t use the communication channel with Russia prior to downing the Syrian plane.

Coincidentally, I recently watched a program on RT where a Russian Military Expert discussed the American proposal to make Syria a “No-fly Zone.” In Russia, a no-fly zone is defined as area where no aircraft of any kind are permitted in the air, even Russian aircraft. The American side view a no-fly zone as an area only they and their allies may fly in. You can see the problem here immediately. As of today, (19/6/2017), the Russians will enforce their no-fly zone meaning Russian surface-to-air missiles may be fired at US fighters and drones.

It is a deadly situation that could easily and quickly escalate out of hand.