{"id":37947,"date":"2019-03-29T14:23:55","date_gmt":"2019-03-29T14:23:55","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/?p=37947"},"modified":"2019-03-29T14:23:55","modified_gmt":"2019-03-29T14:23:55","slug":"turkey-rejects-us-pressure-over-russian-s-400-missile-deal","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/?p=37947","title":{"rendered":"Turkey rejects US pressure over Russian S-400 missile deal"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

Turkey’s government on Friday rejected the US pressure over its missile deal with Russia, saying Ankara was already in talks over the delivery of the S-400 defence system.<\/p>\n

President Recep Tayyip Erdogan<\/a> has riled<\/a> Turkey’s NATO<\/a> allies, especially the United States<\/a>, by purchasing the Russian missile and by drawing closer to Russia<\/a>‘s President Vladimir Putin<\/a>.<\/p>\n

US officials have warned<\/a> Turkey could face possible sanctions and a block on its participation in the US-made F-35 fighter jet programme because of the Russian deal.<\/p>\n

“We have signed a deal with Russia, and this deal is valid. Now we are discussing the delivery process,” Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu said during a press conference with his Russian counterpart in the Turkish city of Antalya.<\/p>\n

“We have an agreement<\/a> with Russia and we are bound by it,” he said, adding pressure from other countries was against international law.<\/p>\n

Cavusoglu said Turkey<\/a> had also met its obligations as a partner in the F-35 jet made by US company Lockheed Martin.<\/p>\n

“Turkey is also a partner in the F-35 project. Some parts are being made in here in Turkey. Turkey has fulfilled its responsibilities in this regard,” the minister said.<\/p>\n

The first Russian S-400 delivery is expected in July.<\/p>\n

The dispute is one part of a growing rift between Washington and Ankara who are at odds over Syria and also a US refusal to extradite a US-based preacher Turkey blames for a 2016 failed coup.<\/p>\n

In the latest sign of US pressure, four senators on Thursday introduced a bill that would block delivery of F-35 jets to Turkey until Ankara gives up the Russian missiles.<\/p>\n

“Turkey is an important NATO ally and willing partner in addressing a number of US national security priorities,” said Republican Senator James Lankford in a statement on the bill.<\/p>\n

“It’s concerning that Turkey would seek close defence cooperation with Russia, whose authoritarian ruler seeks to undermine NATO and US interests at every turn.”<\/p>\n

Turkey plans to buy 100 F-35s and some Turkish pilots already started training with counterparts in the US.<\/p>\n

US officials say they are worried about technology from the S-400s allowing Moscow to collect data on NATO aircraft and about how compatible the Russia systems will be inside NATO operations.<\/p>\n

US officials have increasingly warned about fallout from the missile deal for the F-35 jet programme and have pressured Turkey to buy US-made Patriot missile defences as an alternative.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Turkey’s government on Friday rejected the US pressure over its missile deal with Russia, saying Ankara was already in talks over the delivery of the S-400 defence system. President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has riled Turkey’s NATO allies, especially the United States, by purchasing the Russian missile and by drawing closer to Russia’s President Vladimir Putin.…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10,"featured_media":37948,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-37947","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-middle_east_news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/37947","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/10"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=37947"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/37947\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/37948"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=37947"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=37947"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=37947"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}