WASHINGTON (Sputnik) — Earlier on Monday, the Russian Defense Ministry announced that it suspended the deconfliction channel with the United States for flight operations in Syria after a US jet had shot down a Syrian fighter jet near the city of Tabqa on June 18.
"We’re going to do what we can to protect our interests," Spicer stated. "And we're going to continue to keep an open mind of communication with the Russians…it’s important and crucial that we keep lines of communication open to de-conflict potential issues."
19 June 2017, 19:56 GMT
Also on Monday, US Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman Gen. Joseph Dunford said Washington will engage diplomatically and militarily with Moscow in the next several hours to restore the deconfliction line for operations in Syria.
The US-led coalition said the Syrian aircraft attacked Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) positions, and the coalition downed the Syrian jet as part of "collective self-defense of Coalition partnered forces."
