Posted on 12/17/2020 11:09:58 PM PST by xomething
WASHINGTON — The Trump administration slapped sanctions on Turkey on Monday over a multibillion-dollar acquisition of a Russian missile system.
The long-anticipated move is expected to further stoke tensions between Washington and Ankara in the weeks ahead of President-elect Joe Biden’s ascension to the White House and send a message to foreign governments considering future weapons deals with Russia.
In 2017, Turkish President Recep Erdogan brokered a deal reportedly worth $2.5 billion with Russian President Vladimir Putin for the S-400 missile system.
The S-400, a mobile surface-to-air missile system, is said to pose a risk to the NATO alliance as well as the F-35, America’s most expensive weapons platform.
Despite warnings from the United States and other NATO allies, Turkey accepted the first of four missile batteries in July 2019. A week later, the United States cut Turkey, a financial and manufacturing partner, from the F-35 program.
Under the Countering America’s Adversaries Through Sanctions Act, which Trump signed in August 2017, Turkey faced potential economic sanctions for accepting the Kremlin’s missile system. Trump had not yet imposed sanctions on Turkey.
“Turkey is a valued ally and an important regional security partner for the United States, and we seek to continue our decades-long history of productive defense-sector cooperation by removing the obstacle of Turkey’s S-400 possession as soon as possible,” Secretary of State Mike Pompeo wrote in a statement announcing the sanctions.
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(Excerpt) Read more at cnbc.com ...
Those a 400s have a cyrillic kill switch
... weeks ahead of President-elect Joe Biden’s **ascension** to the White House ...
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Thank you, Amanda for using the proper term: ascension.
Why is Turkey a member of NATO?
Turkey also blocked our expeditionary military from using their ports and land to enter Iraq.
They aggravated the situation by allowing us to route huge forces into their ports, and then denied use, causing major delays in getting troops to war zones.
The Turks are simply in a strategic area, nobody trusts them.
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