US Treasury Secretary Says They are 'Looking at' Sanctioning Turkey over S-400 Purchase

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US Secretary of Treasury Steven Mnuchin has said that Washington is considering imposing sanctions on Turkey over its procurement of S-400 air defense systems from Russia.

When asked if they will impose sanctions, Mnuchin said, "We are looking at that. I'm not going to make any comments on any specific decisions, but we are looking at it."

The US previously removed Turkey from the F-35 joint strike fighter program because of the purchase of the S-400s.

Turkey and Russia, aiming to strengthen their economic relations after the 2016 coup attempt, began talks for the procurement of the S-400s in as early as August that year. Fikri Işık, the then Minister of National Defense said in April 2017 that Turkey "urgently" needs an air defense system.

President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan and Vladimir Putin, his counterpart, signed the agreement for the S-400s in Russia's Sochi in May 2017. Rostec, a state-owned defense corporation of Russia, announced that the agreement is worth 2.5 billion dollars. Nurettin Canikli, Işık's successor, said that Turkey will procure two systems and four batteries.

While the US and NATO have been opposing the procurement since then, the delivery of the systems began on July 12. (PT/VK)