Russian fighter jet said to harass US Navy spy plane over Mediterranean

Illustrative — In this Thursday, May 30, 2019, photo released by the U.S. Navy, three EA-18G Growlers from the “Patriots” of Electronic Attack Squadron (VAQ) 140 participate in a change-of-command ceremony aboard the Nimitz-class aircraft carrier USS Abraham Lincoln (CVN 72) in Arabian Sea. (Mass Communication Specialist 3rd Class Amber Smalley/U.S. Navy via AP)

The US army has complained that a Russian fighter jet harassed a surveillance plane over the Mediterranean Sea on Tuesday by intercepting it three times in three hours.

The second of those maneuvers was deemed unsafe by the US Navy’s Sixth Fleet.

“While the Russian aircraft was operating in international airspace, this interaction was irresponsible,” read a statement issued by the Sixth Fleet and quoted by the Reuters news agency.

“We expect them to behave within international standards set to ensure safety and prevent incidents,” the statement added.

The US plane, the P-8A Poseidon, was put at risk by the second intercept, which was said to involve a high-speed pass directly in front of it, causing wake turbulence that “put our pilots and crew at risk.”

There have been past tensions between Washington and Moscow regarding the Middle East. Most recently, a senior official in the Trump administration said on Sunday that the US had made it clear to Russia several times in recent months that America supports Israeli strikes in Syria as long as Iranian forces are operating in the country, according to Israel’s Channel 13.

“We told them [Russia] that all the Iranian forces should leave, and this is not only an Israeli demand, but also an American demand,” the source reportedly said, after Israel retaliated for an attack a day earlier in which rockets were fired from Syria at Mount Hermon, with one explosion damaging a ski-lift.

According to Sunday’s report, the US official said Israel had asked the United States to intervene with Russia regarding Moscow’s commitment to keep pro-Iranian forces at least 70-100 kilometers away from the border, saying that Washington had raised the issue with the Russians in quiet diplomatic talks.

In three weeks the national security advisers of Israel, the US and Russiaare expected to meet in Jerusalem in the first security summit of its kind.

US National Security Adviser John Bolton and his Russian counterpart, Nikolai Patrushev, are expected to discuss Syria and Iran when they meet later this month in Jerusalem with Israel’s national security chief Meir Ben-Shabbat. Israel wants to push Russia and the US to cooperate in reaching a political settlement that will remove the Iranian forces from Syria.

Israel has for years accused Tehran of trying to establish a permanent military presence in Syria from which the Islamic republic could threaten the Jewish state, much in the same way it does from Lebanon with its proxy there, the Hezbollah terrorist group.