Erdogan says US softening stance on Turkey’s purchase of Patriot systems

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has said that Washington was softening its stance on a potential sale of US Patriot defense systems. He added that the United States had asked Ankara to guarantee it will not activate Russian S-400 defense systems, Reuters reported on Tuesday.

“We made this offer to the US on the Patriot: If you are going to give us Patriots, then do it. We can also buy Patriots from you,” Erdogan told reporters on a return flight from Brussels. “They also softened significantly on this S-400 issue. They are now at the point of ‘promise us you won’t make the S-400s operational,’” he noted.

Earlier in the day, Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu told Anadolu Agency that the US had offered land, sea and air intelligence regarding Idlib.

He also said that Turkey’s purchase of Russian S-400 defense systems was not an obstacle to Ankara deploying US Patriot systems, were Washington to offer them.