{"id":40133,"date":"2019-07-16T20:22:31","date_gmt":"2019-07-16T20:22:31","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/?p=40133"},"modified":"2019-07-16T20:22:31","modified_gmt":"2019-07-16T20:22:31","slug":"turkey-cant-have-both-american-f-35s-and-russias-s-400s-us","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/?p=40133","title":{"rendered":"Turkey can’t have both American F-35s and Russia’s S-400s: US"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

The United States denounced Turkey<\/a>‘s decision to buy Russia’s S-400<\/a>\u00a0missile defence system in remarks that broke days of White House silence over the controversial move.<\/p>\n

US President\u00a0<\/span>Donald Trump<\/a>\u00a0said on Tuesday the US will not sell Turkey advanced F-35 fighter jets because Ankara bought the powerful Russian surface-to-air system. But Trump signaled a reluctance to punish Turkey with major sanctions over its acquisition.<\/p>\n

“It’s a very tough situation that they’re in. And it’s a very tough situation that we’ve been placed in the United States,” Trump told reporters during a Cabinet meeting at the White House.<\/p>\n

“With all of that being said, we’re working through it. We’ll see what happens, but it’s not really fair.”<\/p>\n

Appearing before the Senate Armed Services Committee earlier\u00a0on Tuesday<\/span>,\u00a0Trump<\/a>‘s nominee to become the next secretary of defence, Mark Esper, described the move by the NATO partner as “disappointing”.<\/p>\n

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\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
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First shipment of Russian S-400 systems delivered to Turkey<\/p>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n<\/div>\n

“They have been a long-standing and very capable NATO<\/a> ally, but their decision on the S-400 is the wrong one,” Esper said.<\/p>\n

The comments came a day after\u00a0Turkish President\u00a0Recep Tayyip Erdogan<\/a>\u00a0confirmed the first batch of equipment for the missile defence system was delivered from Russia<\/a>, despite repeated US calls to cancel the deal or face punishment.<\/p>\n

Erdogan said he envisioned the S-400s to be operational by April 2020<\/a> and the next step was joint production of the defence system with Russia.<\/p>\n

‘Cannot have both’<\/strong><\/h2>\n

Washington had tried\u00a0<\/span>for months to prevent Turkey’s acquisition of S-400s –\u00a0which can hit targets as far as 400km away –\u00a0<\/span>arguing they are incompatible with NATO systems.<\/p>\n

It also said if the S-400s were deployed near US-made F-35 jets, which Turkey has ordered and is helping to produce, they would undermine the stealth fighters’ defences.<\/p>\n

“<\/span><\/span>The policy that I have communicated to my counterpart … is that you can either have the S-400 or you can have the F-35. You cannot have both,” Esper said.<\/p>\n

“Acquisition of the S-400 fundamentally undermines the capabilities of the F-35 and our ability to retain that over-match in the skies going forward,” he added.<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

Turkey has repeatedly said the S-400 is a strategic defence requirement, acquired mainly to secure its southern borders with Syria<\/a> and Iraq<\/a>, and when it made the deal with Moscow for the equipment, the US and Europe failed to present a viable alternative.<\/p>\n

\n‘F<\/strong>orced to buy’<\/strong>\u00a0<\/span>
\n<\/h2>\n

Erdogan has previously said he did not believe Washington would impose sanctions over the issue since the two countries are “strategic allies”.<\/p>\n

Trump again appeared to blame his predecessor, Barack Obama, for failing to sell the US’ best alternative to the Russian S-400s – Patriot missiles. He said Turkey was “forced to buy another missile system”.\u00a0<\/p>\n

“Because of the fact that [Turkey] bought a Russian missile, we’re not allowed to sell them billions of dollars’ worth of aircraft. It’s not a fair situation,” Trump said, lamenting the jobs that would be lost.<\/p>\n

The ongoing dispute between the countries with the two largest armies in NATO marks a deep division in the Western military alliance, which was forged after World War II<\/a>\u00a0to counter Moscow’s military power.<\/p>\n

Investors in Turkey have been unsettled by the deal and the prospect of sanctions, a year after a dispute with Washington over the trial of a US pastor in Turkey contributed to a financial crisis that drove Turkey’s economy into recession.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\n

\n SOURCE:
\n Al Jazeera and news agencies<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The United States denounced Turkey’s decision to buy Russia’s S-400\u00a0missile defence system in remarks that broke days of White House silence over the controversial move. US President\u00a0Donald Trump\u00a0said on Tuesday the US will not sell Turkey advanced F-35 fighter jets because Ankara bought the powerful Russian surface-to-air system. But Trump signaled a reluctance to punish…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10,"featured_media":40134,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-40133","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\/40133","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=40133"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/40133\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/40134"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=40133"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=40133"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=40133"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}