Turkey will to go elsewhere if US won't sell it F-35 jets

Turkey will go elsewhere if the United States does not allow it to buy Lockheed Martin’s F-35 jets, Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu was quoted as saying by broadcaster NTV and other media today.

A US Senate committee last week passed its version of a $716 billion defence policy bill, including a measure to prevent Turkey from purchasing the jets.

Speaking to reporters on a return flight from a visit to Germany, Cavusoglu said there had not yet been any pressure from the US administration to scrap a deal to buy the jets, adding this wasn’t an agreement Washington could pull out of as it wished, according to NTV.

READ: US defence bill to ban sale of F-35 fighter jets to Turkey 

Ties between Ankara and Washington have been strained in recent months over a host of issues, including President Donald Trump’s decision to move the US Embassy in Israel to occupied Jerusalem and US policy in Syria.

Turkey has been carrying out an offensive in northern Syria’s Afrin region against the Syrian Kurdish YPG since January, and has been infuriated with the support Washington has provided the YPG, which Ankara considers a terrorist organisation linked with outlawed Kurdish militants in Turkey.

President Tayyip Erdogan has threatened to push Turkey’s operations against the YPG further east to Manbij, where US trooped are stationed, risking confrontation between the allies.

However, Ankara and Washington have reached an understanding over Manbij in which the militants will leave the area, Cavusoglu said, adding a timetable for the plans could be decided during his talks with US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo next week.

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