Turkey Stands by S-400s, Says F-35 Partners Disapprove of U.S.

Date: 24 June 2019 - 21:41

News ID: ۶۷۳۵۹

ISTANBUL (Dispatche) – Turkey has purchased Russian missile systems and is discussing a delivery date irrespective of any U.S. sanctions, Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu said on Monday, adding the United States is isolated as it also squeezes Turkey on F-35 jets.
The Pentagon announced earlier this month that training by Turkish pilots on F-35 fighter jets had been halted at a U.S. air base in Arizona following Turkey’s purchase of Russian S-400 systems.
The NATO allies have been at loggerheads over the issue for months. Washington says the S-400 is incompatible with NATO’s defense network and could compromise its F-35 fighter jets, an aircraft Turkey is helping to build and planning to buy.
Speaking at a news conference Ankara, Cavusoglu said partner nations in the F-35 jet program do not support the steps taken by the United States to halt pilot training.
"Whatever sanctions will be decided, whatever statement would come from the United States, we have purchased S-400s and right now we are talking about when they will be delivered,” Cavusoglu said.
Buying military equipment from Russia leaves Turkey vulnerable to U.S. retribution under a 2017 law known as the Countering America’s Adversaries Through Sanctions Act, or CAATSA.
Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan said on Thursday that he would discuss the issue with U.S. President Donald Trump at the G20 summit in Japan this week.
Citing three unnamed people familiar with the matter, English-language Bloomberg television news network, reported on June 19 that US President Donald Trump’s administration is weighing three packages of sanctions against Turkey over S-400 purchase.
The sources underlined that the most severe package under discussion between officials at the National Security Council and the State and Treasury departments would all but cripple Turkey's troubled economy, and would be in addition to Ankara's exclusion from the F-35 fighter jet program.
The sanctions proposal with the most support would target several companies in Turkey’s key defense sector under the Countering America’s Adversaries Through Sanctions Act (CAATSA).
The U.S. Congress passed the CAATSA against Russia in August 2017 over allegations of interfering in the 2016 presidential election. The law, among other things, imposes sanctions on countries and companies that engage in contracts to purchase weaponry from Russia.
Such sanctions would effectively sever Turkish firms from the U.S. financial system, making it almost impossible for them to buy American components or sell their products in the U.S.

Russian S-400 Triumf surface-to-air missile launchers roll down Red Square in Moscow, on May 4, 2019, during a nighttime rehearsal for the WWII Victory Parade.