December 9, 2020
US House passes bill to sanction Turkey over S-400 missile purchase
By Abdus Sattar Ghazali
The U.S. House of Representatives on Tuesday passed a defense bill that paves the way for imposing sanctions on Turkey over the country's purchase of S-400 missile systems from Russia, the Daily Sabah reported.
The $740 billion defense bill received 335 votes in favor and 78 opposed, passing with a two-thirds majority that defies the president's veto power.
U.S. President Donald Trump has said that if the Senate also approves the bill, he will veto it. To block Trump's veto power, the Senate must also achieve a two-thirds majority. The Senate is expected to vote on the bill by the end of the week.
The bill requires the imposition of sanctions within 30 days of the legislation passing. It calls for sanctions on "each person that knowingly engaged in the acquisition of the S-400 air defense system" by Turkey, the Sabah said.
The bill would allow the president to rescind the sanctions after a year.
Commenting on the bill, Turkey’s Presidential Spokesperson Ibrahim Kalın said that penalizing Turkey for Russian S-400 purchase is counterproductive. He was speaking via video conference in a German Marshall Fund of the United States event.
Kalın added that Turkey believed it can have a good and positive agenda with the administration of U.S. President-elect Joe Biden.
Ties between NATO allies Turkey and the U.S. were tested last year over Ankara’s acquisition of the advanced S-400 Russian air defense system, prompting Washington to remove Turkey from its F-35 Lightning II jet program.
The U.S. argued that the system could be used by Russia to covertly obtain classified details on the Lockheed Martin F-35 jets and is incompatible with NATO systems. Turkey, however, insists that the S-400 would not be integrated into NATO systems and would not pose a threat to the alliance.
The defense bill calls on Trump to impose sanctions within the scope of Countering America's Adversaries Through Sanctions Act (CAATSA). The sanctions law, which Trump signed in 2017, mandates that the president choose five among a range of 12 sanctions, from banning visas and denying access to the U.S.-based Export-Import Bank to harsher options such as barring transactions with the U.S. financial system and denying export licenses.
In October, R. Clarke Cooper, the top State Department official in charge of arms sales, said that Turkey increased the risk of sanctions after it tested its S-400 system. He said the U.S. had set a red line of Turkey not activating the S-400. Cooper said that, even after the test, he hoped that Turkey would "walk back from operationalizing" the system. "Put it away, decommission it, just do not integrate it and make it operable," he said.
Previous talks between Ankara and Washington on the purchase of U.S. Patriot missiles collapsed over a host of issues, from the S-400s to Ankara’s dissatisfaction with Washington’s terms, according to Sabah. Turkey has said it will only agree to an offer if it includes a technology transfer and joint production terms.
Ankara has repeatedly stressed it was the U.S.' refusal to sell it Patriots that led it to seek out other sellers, adding that Russia had offered a better deal that included technology transfers. Turkey even proposed setting up a commission to clarify any technical issues, according to Sabah.
Congress blocked US arms sales to Turkey
Meanwhile, four key members of Congress, either individually or collectively, have quietly frozen all major U.S. arms sales to Turkey for nearly two years in a move to pressure Ankara to abandon its Russian-built S-400 air defense system, according to Defense News.
The legislative action, which has not been previously reported, is another sign of the deeply fractured relationship between the two NATO allies, a disruption that has already led to Turkey’s expulsion from the F-35 joint strike fighter program, the Defense News said adding:
While it is unclear exactly how many potential sales have been held back, at least two significant deals are in limbo: a follow-on contract for F-16 structural upgrades and export licenses for U.S.-made engines that Turkey needs to complete a $1.5 billion sale of attack helicopters to Pakistan. Historically, the United States is the largest exporter of weapons to Turkey.
Senate Foreign Relations Committee chairman Jim Risch, R-Idaho, and House Foreign Affairs ranking member Rep. Mike McCaul, R-Texas, acknowledged they are part of the freeze after they were contacted by Defense News.
Lawmakers have blasted President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s deepening ties with Russian President Vladimir Putin. Erdogan’s rejection of U.S. offers to buy the Patriot surface-to-air missile system over the Russian-made S-400 and Turkey’s military incursion last year into Kurdish-controlled northern Syria also frustrated members of Congress.
“Turkey is a longtime strategic ally of the United States. That relationship has deteriorated dramatically in recent years and is quickly deteriorating further,” Risch was quoted by the Defense News as saying. “President Erdogan’s purchase of the Russian S-400 significantly changed the nature of our relationship. This purchase benefits our adversary Putin and threatens the integrity of the NATO Alliance.”
Turkey’s September 2017 decision to purchase the S-400 created a major rift between Turkey and its alliance partners. NATO officials quickly sounded the alarm that Turkey would compromise NATO’s security if it plugged the S-400 into allied systems, as the Russian system would be sharing a network with sensitive alliance data. Most significantly, American officials worried that the system would be able to gain information about the F-35, compromising the stealth capabilities of the jet. The presence of Russian contractors in Turkey to support the S-400 was also a concern.
“Turkey’s purchase of the Russian S-400 is unacceptable and undermines NATO’s mission to deter Russian aggression,” McCaul said in a email to Defense News. “The Administration must impose the sanctions required by law in response to this purchase. Turkey must reverse course on this destabilizing action to renew the United States’ confidence in our defense relationship.”
Abdus Sattar Ghazali is the Chief Editor of the Journal of America (www.journalofamerica.net) email: asghazali2011 (@) gmail.com
The Journal of America Team:
Editor in chief:
Abdus Sattar Ghazali
Senior Editor:
Prof. Arthur Scott
Special Correspondent
Maryam Turab
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