Turkey gradually moving away from dictates of US: Analyst

Turkey’s plans to buy the Russian S-400 missile defense system and the United States’ threats to slap sanctions on the country for its purchase underscores the rising tensions between the two NATO allies, says an American political analyst.

“This may be another step of the gradual moving away from the dictates from Washington by some of our nominal allies,” said James Jatras, a former US Senate foreign policy analyst.

“At this point, Turkey is so estranged from the rest of the NATO alliance, it's hard to see that the US will be in a position to change Turkey’s mind on this,” Jatras told Press TV on Sunday.

“The S-400 is a very capable system by all accounts and I could understand why there would be concerns about the capabilities,” he added.

The top US Air Force general in Europe said Sunday that Turkey’s plans to buy the Russian S-400 missile defense system would give a weapon used by “known foes” of NATO deep insight into the radar-evading F-35 fighter jets arriving in growing numbers in Europe.

“Anything that an S-400 can do that affords it the ability to better understand a capability like the F-35 is certainly not to the advantage of the coalition,” said General Tod Wolters, who is also the NATO Allied Air Commander, on Sunday.

In late June, US Assistant Secretary of State for European and Eurasian Affairs Wess Mitchell warned that Washington would impose sanctions on Ankara if it proceeded with the purchase of the S-400s, including withholding the sale of the F-35 stealth jets, citing national security concerns.

PressTV-Turkey’s purchase of S-400 risk for NATO: US general

A top US general says Turkish plans to buy Russian s-400 systems is a risk for NATO.

Washington and its NATO allies have strived to prevent the sophisticated Russian-built anti-aircraft weapon system from collecting information about the US-made all-weather stealth multirole warplanes, technically known as the Lockheed Martin F-35 fighters, just as they are gaining a foothold in Europe.

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin said in the Turkish capital, Ankara, on April 3 that they had agreed to expedite the delivery of S-400 missile systems. The delivery is expected to start between late 2019 and early 2020.

Ankara’s ties with its Western allies in NATO have been strained over a range of issues. Erdogan has been critical of Washington for supporting Kurdish groups in Syria that he says are responsible for terror attacks inside Turkey. 

Erdogan has also slammed American officials for rejecting his requests to hand over Fethullah Gulen, a powerful opposition figure living in the US, whom Ankara accuses of having masterminded a coup attempt in July 2016.

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