https://edition.cnn.com/2020/12/14/poli ... index.html
CNN
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The Trump administration will sanction Turkey for its purchase of a Russian surface-to-air missile system more than a year after Ankara took delivery of the weapons, a delay that so frustrated Congress that lawmakers made the sanctions mandatory.
Lawmakers included a provision in the National Defense Authorization Act of 2021 that requires President Donald Trump to implement sanctions within 30 days of the law’s enactment. Trump had balked at applying sanctions to Turkey and on Monday, State Department officials made it clear they were taking the steps as a last resort.
“We very much regret that this has been necessary and we very much hope that Turkey will work with us to resolve the S-400 problem as quickly as possible,” said Chris Ford, the State Department assistant secretary for international security and nonproliferation, told reporters on Monday.
Sen. Bob Menendez, the leading Democrat on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, welcomed the move. “After dangerous and inexplicable delays, I am glad to see the Trump Admin finally impose long overdue sanctions on Turkey for its purchase of the S400 as required under the CAATSA law,” Menendez said in a tweet.
Trump’s ties to Turkey
It has been reported that Trump opposed the sanctions because he did not want to antagonize President Recep Erdogan. Trump has cultivated the Turkish leader to such an extent that the frequency of his calls with Erdogan worried his national security advisers, CNN’s Carl Bernstein has reported. Trump has also balked at sanctioning a Turkish bank that violated US sanctions on Iran.
‘A tough issue’
“This issue, the S-400, is a tough issue. And we’re having a hard time,” then-Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. Joseph Dunford said in March 2019 at an event at the Atlantic Council in Washington, DC.
“I think both the executive branch of our government, the legislative branch of our government, are going to have a hard time reconciling the presence of the S-400 and the most advanced fighter aircraft that we have, the F-35,” he said, adding that “our position has been made very clear to Turkey.”
Turkey took delivery of the S-400 components in July 2019 over objections from Washington, which then removed Ankara from the joint F-35 stealth fighter jet program due to concerns that the stealth jet could be compromised by the S-400s advanced radar.
Anger toward Turkey – and support for sanctions – grew on Capitol Hill after Trump gave Erdogan permission to invade northeastern Syria in October 2019 and attack the US’ main allies in the fight against ISIS. The House and Senate passed a series of bills proposing sanctions against senior officials involved in the attack against the Kurds, targeting the assets of Erdogan and other top officials, and limiting arms sales to Turkey, before recommending in the 2020 defense spending bill that Trump sanction Ankara for the S-400 purchase.
When the President failed to do so, lawmakers made CAATSA sanctions mandatory in the 2021 defense spending bill, which passed on December 11. Trump threatened to veto the bill on Sunday, saying “the biggest winner” of the bill is China.