WASHINGTON (Sputnik) — Earlier in the day the Operation Inherent Resolve spokesperson told Sputnik that the US-led coalition has used the deconfliction channel with Russia for flight operations in Syria several times on Sunday amid the incident with the downing of a Syrian Su-22 jet south of Tabqa.
The spokesperson added that the US-led coalition has taken steps to reposition its aircraft in Syria after recent encounters with pro-Syrian government and Russian forces.
"We work very hard on deconfliction," Dunford stated. "That [deconfliction] link is still ongoing here this morning…We have still been communicating over the last few hours."
Previously, the Russian Defense Ministry said that it halted all interactions with the US within the framework on the memorandum of incident prevention in Syrian skies. Moscow said the US-led coalition didn't contact the Russian military over the incident. The move came following the US-led coalition's downing of a Syrian army's jet near Raqqa.
Gen. Joseph Dunford also said he has not yet contacted his Russian counterpart, Gen. Valery Gerasimov, after the incident involving downing of a Syrian jet.
Asked if he has been in touch with Gerasimov, Dunford said, "I have not as of yet this morning."
The United States will engage diplomatically and militarily with Russia in the next several hours to restore the deconfliction line for operations in Syria, Dunford noted.
"We will work diplomatically and militarily in the coming hours to re-establish deconfliction," Dunford stated at the National Press Club.
