Hürriyet Reported Turkey May Have Sold Russian S-400 Systems to Gulf Country
Hürriyet reported that Turkey may have sold Russian S-400 air defense systems to a Persian Gulf country, a move that could affect US sanctions and Ankara’s return to the F-35 program.
Turkey may have sold the S-400 surface-to-air missile systems it purchased from Russia to a third country. This was reported by the Turkish outlet Hürriyet, citing journalist Abdulkadir Selvi.
According to the columnist, the Russian systems are being sent to one of the Persian Gulf countries. He noted that an official announcement of the deal was expected on July 10. At the time of publication, however, Turkish authorities had not confirmed the sale of the S-400 systems.
Selvi also reported that the parties had been working the day before to resolve a number of issues related to the deal, and that these problems had been settled by midnight. According to some of the journalist’s sources, the buyer may be the United Arab Emirates. Other sources claim that the systems were purchased by Qatar.
The Hürriyet article notes that both countries are interested in surface-to-air missile systems amid rising tensions in the region caused by the war between the United States and Iran.
The sale of the Russian S-400 systems, the Turkish outlet writes, could allow Ankara to get rid of US sanctions imposed under the CAATSA law. In addition, such a step could open the way for Turkey to return to the F-35 Lightning II fifth-generation fighter program.
CAATSA, or the Countering America’s Adversaries Through Sanctions Act, is a US federal law that came into force on August 2, 2017. It provides for sanctions against countries that Washington considers its adversaries, including Russia, Iran and North Korea.
The United States has previously insisted that the S-400 systems should not be located either on Turkish territory or in service with the Turkish army. Various options for resolving the issue had been discussed, including storing the systems under US control, dismantling their launchers, or placing the complexes in an inactive state. However, Washington considered such measures insufficient under US law.
In late June, Euractiv reported another possible scenario: according to the outlet, Turkey could sell the S-400 systems to South Korea instead of returning them to Russia. At the same time, Greece and Israel expressed concern that the possible sale of F-35 fighters to Ankara could change the military balance in the region.
Turkey signed the contract for the delivery of S-400 systems in 2017. The deal was worth about $2.5 billion, and the first systems were delivered in the summer of 2019. After that, Washington removed Ankara from the F-35 program and imposed CAATSA sanctions on it in December 2020.
Russian presidential spokesman Dmitry Peskov, commenting earlier on Turkey’s possible rejection of the S-400 systems, said that such a step would not affect relations between Moscow and Ankara.