MOSCOW (MEMO) – Russia has refused a demand by the Zionist regime to resolve an electromagnetic interference from its air base in Syria on the GPS of planes landing in Tel Aviv, further impacting relations between the two.
According to the KAN news channel on Monday, the occupying regime sent a letter to Russia stating that the defense systems at the Russian Khmeimim Air Base in the Syrian port city of Latakia are causing electromagnetic interference in the GPS systems of planes landing in Tel Aviv.
A pilot for an airline company at Tel Aviv airport told the channel that the interference comes from “spoofing,” a form of electronic warfare, which has forced pilots to have to quickly react to sudden changes due to their GPS systems showing false locations and coordinates.
“What we’ve run into is [electromagnetic] spectrum interference from the east, which has taken us a while to understand,” the pilot said. Such interferences have reportedly been experienced over the past month, before they were finally narrowed down to originating from the Russian defense systems in Syria.
Moscow has now refused to heed Tel Aviv’s demand to resolve the issue, however, stating that the air defense systems at the Khmeimim base were placed there specifically to protect its soldiers in the region.
A similar incident took place in 2019, when the Zionist regime’s air authorities publicly complained that similar interference from Russia was causing “significant impact on all aspects of operating a plane from the cockpit, as well as on managing air traffic.” Russia dismissed the claims as fake news at the time, but later resolved the issue.
Some view Moscow’s refusal of the Zionist regime’s demand as an expression of anger or displeasure at continued strikes on Syria by the occupying regime.
Russia has assisted Syria’s President Bashar al-Assad throughout the ongoing foreign-backed conflict in the country.