ANKARA: Turkey will go elsewhere if the United States does not allow it tobuy Lockheed Martin’s F-35 jets, Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu wasquoted as saying by broadcaster NTV and other media on Wednesday.
A US Senate committee last week passed its version of a $716 billiondefense policy bill, including a measure to prevent Turkey from purchasingthe jets, further straining already tense relations between the NATO allies.
Speaking to reporters on a return flight from a visit to Germany, Cavusoglusaid there had not yet been any pressure from the US administration toscrap a deal to buy the jets, adding this wasn’t an agreement Washingtoncould pull out of as it wished, according to NTV.
Ties between Ankara and Washington have been strained in recent months overa host of issues, including President Donald Trump’s decision to move theUS Embassy in Israel to contested Jerusalem and US policy in Syria.
Turkey has been carrying out an offensive into northern Syria’s Afrinregion against the Syrian Kurdish YPG since January, and has beeninfuriated with the support Washington has provided the YPG, which Ankaraconsiders a terrorist organization linked with outlawed Kurdish militantsin Turkey.
President Tayyip Erdogan has threatened to push Turkey’s operations againstthe YPG further east to Manbij, where US trooped are stationed, riskingconfrontation between the allies.
However, Ankara and Washington have reached an understanding over Manbij inwhich the militants will leave the area, Cavusoglu said, adding a timetablefor the plans could be decided during his talks with US Secretary of StateMike Pompeo next week.
Last week, Turkish and US working groups, who met in Ankara, said they hadoutlined a draft for cooperation to ensure security and stability in Manbij.
If the agreement is finalised, the model could be applied to other areas innorthern Syria, NTV quoted Cavusoglu as saying.
He also said Turkey’s ambassador to Washington, who had been recalled forconsultations after Israeli forces killed Palestinian protesters in Gazaearlier this month, could return to Washington around the time ofCavusoglu’s US visit.