Special to WorldTribune.com

Turkey had to have approval from NATO before it shot down a Russian Su-24, a member of Lebanon parliament said.

Walid Jumblatt, in an exclusive interview with Breitbart, said “the Turks cannot afford to shoot down a Russian plane, being a member of NATO, without asking the permission of NATO.”

Jumblatt, considered the leader of Lebanon’s Druze community, is head of the Progressive Socialist Party.

“I know that this jet was shot down by the Turks and directly [by] the Cold War between NATO and Russia,” he said.

Asked if he believed NATO approved of Turkey’s downing of the Russian jet, Jumblatt said: “I think so, because such a major action cannot be taken on a local level. A Turkish level. Because so many times the Turkish airspace was violated. Now this is something else. It’s a new dimension in international politics.

“From one side you have the Americans and their allies fighting ISIL. And they are at odds with the Russian policy, because Russian policy, from Ukraine to Crimea, there is tension about it,” Jumblatt said. “Now there is tension about Syria. Russia favors the Syrian regime. Whereby NATO, theoretically they want to topple the (Bashar) Assad regime. They want a transitional period in Syria. These are the broad lines.”

President Vladimir Putin hinted the U.S. may have passed Russian flight information to Turkey.

“The American side, which leads the coalition that Turkey belongs to, knew about the location and time of our planes’ flights, and we were hit exactly there and at that time,” Putin said.

  Report: Turkey needed NATO’s approval to down Russian jet, Walid Jumblatt, WorldTribune.com