Washington’s sanctions on Ankara remains reluctant – Analyst
North-Press Agency
The issue of imposing American sanctions on Turkey is still on the negotiating table, but Washington is reluctant to impose new sanctions in response to Ankara's adherence to the Russian S-400 missile defense system deal, while Turkey began testing the S-400 system that is supposed to be operated in April 2020.
In this regard, the writer and political analyst Imad Abdul Hadi told North-Press that during the recent visit of the Turkish President Erdogan to Washington, there was a sharp argument between Erdogan and the Republican Senator Lindsey Graham, because of the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) and Turkey's military invasion of northern Syria, and its classification of the Kurds as terrorists. After the meeting at the White House, in the presence of U.S. President Donald Trump, Graham was surprised by the White House officials asking him to go to the Congress to stop the decision, which was accusing Turkey of the Armenian Genocide, that angered Erdogan. He said: "Graham did what he was asked to do and justified that the Turkish president was in Washington, and that the adoption of such resolution at this time is contrary to the diplomatic norms,” adding that Graham said: "Washington still hopes to persuade Erdogan to abandon the Russian missile deal.”
The political analyst stressed that the issue of sanctions is because of Erdogan's adherence to the deal with Russia, which is still on the table, noting that after Graham objected the Congress resolution on the massacres of Armenians by the Ottoman Turks, a second draft resolution was submitted by the same Democratic member Bob Menendez, but the White House has assigned another Republican to veto it.”
As long as it remains in the hands of the Congress, we should expect further sanctions, if Erdogan insists on sticking to his position," Abdul Hadi said.
Washington recently imposed new sanctions on four Turkish companies for their dealing with the Islamic State terrorist group (ISIS).
Abdul Hadi stressed that if Trump is not re-elected, it is almost certain that Turkey will face additional sanctions if a democratic president is elected. As for Turkey's audacity with the Russian S-400 experiment, and if there is an implicit consensus between the parties (Russia, Turkey and the U.S.), the political analyst has denied any consensus among these countries.
He pointed out that it is still a sharp dispute between the two parties, especially the Congress, which is against Turkey due to its actions that are inconsistent with being an ally, in addition that the matter isn't limited to the United States, but it is met with no less severe opposition from NATO.
According to Imad Abdul Hadi, "The Turkish offers of not deploying missiles or not to operate them as a solution, were rejected by the United States, and its proposal to form a joint committee to study the extent of the threat posed by Russia to NATO, had a previous share of rejection by all NATO countries including the U.S.," noting that Washington is known to have punished Ankara by excluding it from the F-35 aircraft program.