NEWS DESK
\nISTANBUL
\nPresident Recep Tayyip Erdogan said Tuesday Turkey would not withdraw from a deal made with Russia to buy an S-400 missile defense system despite pressure from the United States.
\n\u201cWe have made an agreement (with Russia). We are determined. There is nothing like backtracking from that,\u201d Erdogan was quoted as saying by the official Anadolu news agency.
\nAnkara\u2019s desire to buy the Russian S400 system has been a major source of contention between NATO allies Turkey and the United States, which has threatened sanctions.
\nLast week, a top Pentagon official said the consequences would be \u201cdevastating\u201d for Turkey\u2019s joint F-35 fighter program and its cooperation with NATO if the country goes ahead with plans to buy the Russian missile defense system. Kathryn Wheelbarger, Acting Assistant Secretary of Defense for International Security Affairs, said Ankara\u2019s planned purchase of the S-400 would damage Turkey\u2019s ability to work with the Western alliance, and force Washington to hit the country with sanctions.
\nShe said that the US administration, even if it does not want to punish Turkey for the purchase, could be forced to do so by a Congress unsympathetic to Ankara.
\nTurkey has defied the mounting pressure and said the purchase was a \u201cdone deal.\u201d
\nErdogan on Wednesday spoke with US President Donald Trump by phone and, according to the Turkish leader\u2019s office, they discussed Ankara\u2019s previous offer to form a \u201cjoint working group\u201d on the missile system.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
NEWS DESK ISTANBUL President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said Tuesday Turkey would not withdraw from a deal made with Russia to buy an S-400 missile defense system despite pressure from the United States. \u201cWe have made an agreement (with Russia). We are determined. There is nothing like backtracking from that,\u201d Erdogan was quoted as saying by […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-67807","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","category-world"],"yoast_head":"\n