The S-400 missile crisis ... America is persistent in its rejection and Turkey proposes a new solution to end the crisis with Washington

A US State Department official said that Washington’s position on the Russian S-400 missile system that Turkey acquired has not changed, while Turkish Defense Minister Hulusi Akar said that his country is ready to negotiate the system and may not use it.

In response to a question to Al-Jazeera, the US State Department official stated that the Russian S-400 defense system is not compatible with NATO equipment, threatens the security of NATO technology, and conflicts with Turkey's obligations as a NATO ally. The US official urged Turkey to review its decision on the matter. Preservation of the Russian system.

Last year, Washington imposed sanctions on Ankara because of these Russian missiles, and was reflected in the ban on granting any permits to export weapons to the Turkish government agency charged with purchasing military equipment.

And before that, America kept Turkey from participating in the program to produce the F-35 warplane, which Turkey was a manufacturer and buyer for, due to its acquisition of the S-400 missiles in mid-2019.

Akar: We are open to negotiating the "S-400" according to a model similar to what is in force with the Greek "S-300" missiles (Al-Jazeera)

Akar's statements

The US official’s statement came shortly after statements by the Turkish Defense Minister in an interview published Tuesday in the Turkish newspaper, Hurriyet, in which he said that his country would propose only partial activation of Russian missiles in negotiations with Washington.

The Turkish minister pointed out that a number of European countries possessed weapons dating back to the Soviet era, after these countries were members of the Warsaw Pact.

In the press interview, Akar said, "We are open to negotiating a model similar to that applied to the S-300300 (S-300) missiles located on the island of Crete in Greece."

Previous model

In the face of strong protests from Turkey at the time, Cyprus in 1999 changed its deployment of the "S-300" missiles that it had requested from Russia, and placed them on the island of Crete in agreement with Athens.

Greece later became the owner of these missiles, which have not been used since then;

Except during the maneuvers of 2013.

And Bloomberg News quoted Turkish officials as saying that Ankara is open to reaching an understanding with Washington regarding the "S-400" system, and they added that their country is ready to reduce the use of the Russian missile system in exchange for American weapons.

And in a telephone conversation last week, which was the first official contact between Turkey and the United States since US President Joe Biden assumed office, Ibrahim Kalin, the Turkish President’s advisor to US National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan, said that the dispute over the S-400 missiles needed to be resolved.

Since Biden was elected president of the United States, Ankara has said that it wants to improve relations with Washington, and has proposed forming a joint working group on the "S-400" missiles, but Washington has repeatedly refused this, and says that the sanctions will remain until Turkey gives up possession of the Russian missile system.