According to England’s Financial Times, US President Barack Obama issued a warning to Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan on Turkey’s differing stances on Israel and Iran, when they met during the G20 summit held in Toronto in June.
The newspaper article, entitled; ‘US issues arms deal ultimatum to Turkey’ reveals the President Obama told Prime Minister Erdoğan that if Turkey does not alter its position towards Israel and Iran then the chance of purchasing weapons from the US will be lessened.
According to the article, a high-level U.S. official requesting to remain anonymous states; “The president has said to Erdoğan that some of the actions that Turkey has taken have caused questions to be raised on the Hill… about whether we can have confidence in Turkey as an ally.”
The Financial Times states that Obama’s warning to Erdoğan is significant as Ankara intends to purchase drones from the US, especially the missile-bearing reaper.
According to the article, Turkey has intentions to purchase American drone aircraft to use against the PKK terrorist organization, once the US army has withdrawn from Iraq at the end of 2011.
The article states that according to US law, the United States administration must inform the congress fifteen days prior to selling large-scale weapons to NATO allies, such as Turkey.
As long as the congress does not approve of legislation to restrict the sales, technically the sale will be able to go through, however resistance by the Congress can, “push the administration to abandon politically unpopular sales,” the article states.
