Turkey on Monday condemned U.S. sanctions over its purchase of Russian S-400 missile defences and threatened to retaliate over a move it said would harm ties between the NATO allies.
Washington imposed the long-anticipated sanctions on Turkey’s top defence procurement and development body, its chairman and three other employees.
Turkey’s Foreign Ministry called the decision “inexplicable” given that Washington repeatedly rejected Ankara’s offer to form a joint working group to allay U.S. concerns that the S-400s threatened NATO defences.
Analysts said the targeted move would mostly spare the broader Turkish economy.
The United States says Turkey’s determination to use the S-400s, acquired from Moscow in 2019, left it with no choice given F-35 jets and other shared defences would be vulnerable to NATO foe Russia.
Turkey has said the ground-to-air missiles would not be plugged into NATO systems and pose no threat.
The strained ties between Washington and Ankara have weighed on Turkey’s lira, which hit a series of record lows this year.
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