By Agencies
The United States of America is considering slapping sanction on Turkey for buying a consignment of air defence weapons from Russia.
Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Сavusoglu stated last week that Turkey will retaliate if the United States introduces sanctions over Ankara’s purchase of Russian S-400 air defence systems. The US State Department announced on Thursday that Secretary of State Mike Pompeo was considering various economic restrictions and actions aimed at Turkey over its purchase of Russian S-400 missile systems.
This comes after the US House of Representatives passed a resolution earlier this week in which it slammed Ankara’s decision to purchase Russian S-400 missile systems and called on Ankara to cancel its procurement. Turkey, for its part, condemned the document, saying that it questioned the mutual trust between the nations. Prior to that, Ankara had vowed to take retaliatory measures last week if the US State Department introduced sanctions against the country over its S-400 deal with Russia. Later that week, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan told CNN Turk that Russian S-400 air defence systems may start being delivered to Turkey in the first half of July.
Erdogan’s statement was made after acting US Defense Secretary Patrick Shanahan warned Turkey on 7 June that the delivery of 100 purchased F-35 fighter jets will be halted and F-35 training for Turkish pilots will not be provided if Ankara chooses to proceed with the S-400 purchase. In December 2017, Moscow and Ankara signed an agreement for the delivery of the S-400 systems; however, this move angered the United States, as, according to Washington, the systems might be incompatible with NATO standards. In spite of the US threats to impose sanctions against Ankara,Turkish officials have said that the purchase of military equipment is a sovereign right and ruled out the possibility of abandoning plans to acquire the S-400 systems.
