ISTANBUL: Turkey on Sunday dismissed US threats of sanctions if it went ahead with a Russian missile purchase, saying it would not renege on a pledge to Moscow.
Washington has warned its NATO ally for months that Ankara’s adoption of Russian S-400 missile technology alongside US F-35 fighters would pose a threat to the jets and endanger Western defense.
The US has said it will halt a joint F-35 program with Turkey if it acquires the Russian missile defense system. A US law furthermore provides for sanctions on any country concluding arms deals with Russian companies.
“The US threats of sanctions shows that they don’t know Turkey,” Vice President Fuat Oktay told Kanal 7 television.
“The decision on the S-400 has been taken. Once a pact has been signed, one’s word given, Turkey respects it,” he said.
The S-400 purchase is one dispute fueling tensions between two nations also at odds over US support for Syrian Kurdish militias which Ankara brands as terrorists and Turkish backing for US foe Venezuela.
Ankara said the first deliveries of the S-400 are scheduled for June or July.
Last month, after repeated warnings, the United States said Turkey’s decision to buy the S-400 system was incompatible with it remaining part of the emblematic F-35 jet program.
Turkey had planned to buy 100 F-35A fighter jets, with pilots already training in the United States.
Washington has placed a freeze on the joint manufacturing operations with Turkey, and suggested Ankara might be able to obtain a US missile defense system if it forgoes the one on offer from Moscow.
Turkey to buy Russian missiles despite US ‘threats’
Turkey to buy Russian missiles despite US ‘threats’
- US said they will stop the F-35 program with Turkey if they proceed with S-400 missile purchase
- Turkey officials said first delivery of Russian missiles will come in June to July
Drone attack by paramilitary group in Sudan kills 24, including 8 children, doctors’ group says
- Saturday’s attack by RSF occurred close to the city of Rahad in North Kordofan province, said the Sudan Doctors Network
- The vehicle was transporting displaced people who fled fighting in the Dubeiker area
CAIRO: A drone attack by a notorious paramilitary group hit a vehicle carrying displaced families in central Sudan Saturday, killing at least 24 people, including eight children, a doctors’ group said, a day after a World Food Program aid convoy was targeted.
Saturday’s attack by the Rapid Support Forces occurred close to the city of Rahad in North Kordofan province, said the Sudan Doctors Network, which tracks the country’s ongoing war.
The vehicle was transporting displaced people who fled fighting in the Dubeiker area, the group said in a statement. Among the dead children were two infants.
Several others were wounded and taken for treatment in Rahad, which suffers severe medical supplies shortages, like many areas in the Kordofan region, the statement said.
The doctors’ group urged the international community and rights organizations to “take immediate action to protect civilians and hold the RSF leadership directly accountable for these violations.”
There was no immediate comment from the RSF, which has been at war against the Sudanese military for control of the country for about three years.
Sudan plunged into chaos in April 2023 when a power struggle between the military and the RSF exploded into open fighting in the capital, Khartoum, and elsewhere in the country, leaving tens of thousands dead and millions displaced.
