Greece mulls shutting airspace to Syria-bound Russia flights

Greece says it is considering a US request to shut its airspace to Russian planes carrying humanitarian aid to Syria.

On Monday, a spokesman for Greece’s Foreign Ministry confirmed that the US has asked Athens to close its airspace to Russia’s humanitarian flights bound for Syria.

The report came a day after the Russian media, including RIA Novosti and Sputnik, announced that Athens had dismissed Washington’s request.

“On Saturday, US embassy appealed to the Greek government with a request to prohibit the flights of Russian aircraft in the FIR Athens. The Greek government refused to do so, in order not to worsen relations with Russia,” RIA Novosti quoted an unnamed diplomatic source in Athens.

Russia has so far dispatched several relief convoys to the violence-wracked Arab country in an attempt to alleviate the suffering of Syrian civilians, who have borne the brunt of a deadly conflict fueled by foreign-backed Takfiri terrorists since 2011.

The Takfiri militants, who currently control areas across Syria as well as northern and western Iraq, have been carrying out horrific acts of violence, including public decapitations, against Iraqi and Syrian communities such as Shias, Sunnis, Kurds, and Christians. Nearly 240,000 Syrians have been killed in the foreign-backed violence.