Turkey will turn to legal measures if the United States blocks the transfer of F-35 fighter jets to the country, as Turkey has fulfilled all the conditions of the contract, the Turkish president's press secretary Ibrahim Kalin said on Wednesday.
ANKARA (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 15th August, 2018) Turkey will turn to legal measures if the United States blocks the transfer of F-35 fighter jets to the country, as Turkey has fulfilled all the conditions of the contract, the Turkish president's press secretary Ibrahim Kalin said on Wednesday.
On Monday, US President Donald Trump signed the John S. McCain National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2019 (NDAA) into law. The act envisages barring the transfer of F-35 fighter jets to Ankara.
"The paragraph [of the NDAA] signed [by US President Donald Trump] is part of general law. Our pilots continue training until there is no specific decision. But breaking the contract is not so easy ... We have fulfilled all the conditions, we have paid money. And if the Unites States infringe the contract, we'll advocate our interests within legal framework," Kalin told reporters.
In June, US Assistant Secretary of State for European and Eurasian Affairs Wess Mitchell said that Turkey's purchase of Russian S-400 anti-missile systems could result in the withholding of the F-35 jets transfer. The loan agreement between Russia and Turkey was signed in December 2017.
Following the US-Turkish bilateral relations' deterioration over US pastor Andrew Brunson's detention in Turkey on suspicion of ties to the movement that had allegedly orchestrated the 2016 failed military coup in Ankara, Trump said last week that he had authorized a doubling of steel and aluminum tariffs on Turkey, up to 50 and 20 percent respectively. This resulted in the Turkish lira reaching its record low. The United States have also announced imposing sanctions on two Turkish ministers, allegedly contributing to Brunson's arrest.
