US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said on Thursday the United States was continuing to evaluate how it would respond to Turkey’s purchase of a Russian S-400 missile defense system, Reuters reported.
“We continue to evaluate how to apply sanctions in order to achieve our end objective,” Pompeo said under questioning from Democratic Senator Bob Menendez at a Senate Foreign Relations Committee hearing.
Turkey and the US have been at odds since Ankara’s procurement of the Russian S-400s as they are incompatible with NATO systems and Washington considers them a threat to its F-35 Joint Strike Fighter.
US senators have repeatedly urged President Donald Trump to impose harsh sanctions on Turkey; however, the president has taken a softer approach to Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, according to former National Security Advisor John Bolton, who wrote a book on Trump’s dealings with foreign leaders.