US concerns over Turkey’s S-400 purchase ‘political'

By Safvan Allahverdi</p> <p>WASHINGTON (AA) – The United States' concerns over Ankara's purchase of Russia’s S-400 missile defense system are &quot;political&quot;, a top Turkish defense official said Thursday. </p> <p>Celal Sami Tufekci, Vice President of Turkey’s Undersecretariat for Defense Industries, recalled the U.S. proposal for the sale of Patriot air and missile defense systems valued at $3.5 billion to Turkey made in early January of this year. </p> <p>&quot;Our work on the S-400 goes back,&quot; before this proposal, Tufekci told Anadolu Agency following a think tank panel in Washington. </p> <p>&quot;We talked not only with Russia and the U.S. but also with many European countries. I believe that the United States expresses its concerns in terms of politics,&quot; he said. &quot;I think they [the concerns] are the arguments that have been generated against Turkey.&quot;</p> <p>Ankara is planning to purchase 100 F-35 fighter jets from the U.S. pending congressional approval. Thirty fighter jets have already been approved for purchase.</p> <p>Washington, however, has expressed reluctance to accept Turkey's purchase of the S-400 system, saying the system might obtain confidential information on the fighter jets, including their detection range and operation mode.</p> <p>Tufekci rejected the allegation that information on the fighter jets’ software would be obtained by the Russian missile system and said American and Israeli F-35 jets were easily flying over Syria where Russian radars are active.</p> <p>&quot;Technically, everything is possible, but Turkey will use its domestic software. We are a friendly country with the U.S.,&quot; he said, pledging that Turkey would not allow any information on the F-35 jets to go anywhere. </p> <p>&quot;We do not allow such a thing anyway,&quot; he added.</p> <p>Turkey had been long trying to purchase the air defense system from the U.S. After finding no success, Ankara decided to buy Russian S-400 air defense systems in 2017.</p> <p>*Servet Gunerigok contributed to the story