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2.7 US senators warn Turkey of sanctions ahead if it deploys Russian S-400 missile system
Turkey has pushed its S-400 row with the US so far that it stands a very real risk of incurring sanctions. The leaders of the US Senate Foreign Relations and Armed Services Committees warned Turkey on April 9 that it risked tough sanctions if it persisted with plans to purchase Russia’s S-400 advanced missile defence system. Exactly why Turkey seems prepared to risk a massive fall-out with fellow Nato members over the acquisition of such military hardware—which the US has anyway offered to competitively bid against with a package of Patriot missile systems—is difficult to fathom. There is no clear indication of Ankara having any appetite to withdraw from Nato, a move that would go down very badly with many western foreign investors. Sanctions alone would severely sour market sentiment.
“By the end of the year, Turkey will have either F-35 advanced fighter aircraft on its soil or a Russian S-400 surface-to-air missile defence system. It will not have both,” Republican Senators Jim Risch and Jim Inhofe and Democratic Senators Bob Menendez and Jack Reed said in a New York Times opinion column.
Risch is chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee and Menendez is the ranking Democrat. Inhofe chairs the Armed Services Committee, while Reed is the ranking Democrat.
The senators said Turkey would be sanctioned, as required under US law if it stuck with the S-400 purchase.
Turkey produces between 6-7% of the F-35. It has also been tapped to run a maintenance depot which would be used by F-35s in the air forces of European Nato allies including the UK.
2.8 “They don’t know us”: In presscall with Putin Erdogan says there’s no way Turkey will drop Russian S-400 deal
Nato member Turkey's plans to push forward with the acquisition of Russia’s S-400 advanced missile defence system are complete and final, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said during a joint press conference with Russian President Vladimir Putin in Moscow on April 8, potentially setting up a final showdown with the US on the issue.
"We have already drawn up our road map regarding the S-400, and those who are calling on us to 'forgo' at this time clearly do not know us. If we have made an agreement, then the matter is over," Erdogan said following a session of the Russian-Turkish Cooperation Council in Moscow.
Syria efforts. Separately, at the press conference, the two leaders said they were continuing to coordinate efforts to stabilise the conflict in Syria.
30 TURKEY Country Report May 2019 www.intellinews.com