Iran's consistent message in its state-approved news media and diplomatic statements has consistently been that Israel has been helping ISIS in Syria.
The most recent charge came on Wednesday, where Iran's official FARS news is quoting an unnamed analyst at Russia's Sputnik news:
The Syrian Sukhoi had not entered the occupied Golan, a military analyst said on Wednesday, adding that Israel shot down the jet intentionally to give a chance to the ISIL terrorists to capture the pilot or breathe during the pause in the army's military operations for starting the rescue operations.For some reason, though, FARS is not reporting this other story published in Sputnik News:
The Arabic-language website of Sputnik reported that the Syrian Sukhoi fighter jet that was downed by Israeli Air Defense Units' missiles on Tuesday never entered the Israeli-occupied Golan airspace.
The unnamed analyst further told the Arabic Sputnik that Israeli air defense intentionally shot down the Syrian jet East of the de-escalation line with Israel near the town of Saida, where ISIL is active in a bid to give ISIL terrorists a chance to capture the pilot to have an advantage for some negotiations with the Damascus government over ending the military operation in ISIL-held regions in Southwestern Dara'a.
The Russian Defense Ministry said that an Israeli counterattack on Wednesday on Daesh positions in Syria killed terrorists and destroyed rocket launchers.The Russian Defense Ministry goes way beyond Israeli claims in saying that Israel killed ISIS (Daesh) fighters and in saying that ISIS deliberately shot the rockets at Israel in order to make Israel attack Syrian positions.
The Russian ministry said that a strike on Israeli territory on Wednesday was made from Daesh* positions and that the response from Israel had hit terrorists' missile launchers in Quneitra.
The ministry also expressed gratitude to the Israeli Defense Forces for the counterattack.
"Russian armed forces’ command in Syria used the existing communication channels to thank the IDF leadership for killing terrorists and stopping a massive provocation," the ministry said in a statement.
The Russian military said the Daesh terror group tried on Wednesday evening to draw Israeli fire onto Syrian army positions by launching rockets into Israel.
"A precision strike by jets and IDF artillery operatively destroyed Daesh terrorists and their rocket launchers," the Russian ministry stated.
This is so far out of the Iranian mythical narrative of a connection between ISIS and Israel that Iranian media cannot report the story, until perhaps it finds another "unnamed analyst" to deny the episode - which would implicitly impugn Russia's Defense Ministry.
I can hear the gnashing of teeth in Iranian newsrooms from here.
(h/t Yoel)