Washington will terminate the process of selling US-made Patriot air defense systems to Turkey if Ankara goes on with purchasing Russian-made S-400 systems, a senior US official told Hurriyet Daily News on Thursday
ANKARA (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 07th February, 2019) Washington will terminate the process of selling US-made Patriot air defense systems to Turkey if Ankara goes on with purchasing Russian-made S-400 systems, a senior US official told Hurriyet Daily news on Thursday.In January, the US delegation in Ankara made an official offer to Turkey to purchase Patriot systems. Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu said that Ankara was ready to consider US proposal on deliveries of the Patriot air defense systems, but refused to abandon the S-400 missile systems deal with Russia as a potential precondition for the Ankara-Washington agreement.
"We will not proceed as the condition of the congressional authorization to make the offer to Turkey, we're not in a condition to proceed with the Patriot sale if the S-400 sale goes forward ... We are very concerned that the Turkish purchase of S-400 missiles will endanger Turkish participation in the F-35 program and will likely result through our legislation in some sort of sanctions," the official said.
In December 2018, the US State Department approved the possible sale of Patriot systems to Turkey in the amount of $3.5 billion.
