The Pentagon disagrees with initiative to place Patriot in Turkey

By Boyko Nikolov On Feb 29, 2020

WASHINGTON, (BM) – The State Department and the Pentagon are arguing about the advisability of satisfying Ankara’s request for a temporary deployment of Patriot American anti-aircraft missile systems in Turkey on the Syrian border, learned BulgarianMilitary.com citing US edition of Politico.

Referring to “four people aware of the case,” Politico clarified that James Jeffrey, US Special Representative for Syria, insisted on satisfying the request of the Turkish authorities.

“However, Pentagon officials are concerned about the global consequences of this move, which they consider reckless,” the article said. As an unnamed US foreign affairs official told the newspaper, representatives from the US Department of Defense oppose “stupid things that have real global consequences.”

“It was and is a still bad idea,” said one of the sources of Politico, familiar with the course of their interagency discussions in the US administration, about the request from Turkey and Jeffrey’s calls.

The publication claims that Jeffrey is not only in favor of fulfilling the request of Turkey, but also potentially raises the question of creating with the United States a closed flight zone over the Syrian province of Idlib.

However, senior officers of the US Armed Forces Committee of Chiefs of Staff and representatives of the Office of Defense Secretary Mark Esper reject these proposals, the publication notes, citing representatives of both the Pentagon and the Department of State.

As BulgarianMilitary.com reported this week, Turkey is asking the United States to deploy two Patriot air defense batteries on its southern border in connection with the aggravation of the situation in Idlib province.

As far as is known, Turkey sent the official request about this to the United States the year before last via Jeffrey, who in 2008-2010 served as ambassador to Ankara.

On Wednesday at a meeting with foreign reporters in Washington, a representative of the US Army European Command confirmed that there are no decisions regarding Turkey’s request so far, despite Ankara’s discontent.

In turn, a representative of the American authorities on February 21, explained that it was exclusively about the possible temporary deployment of American air defense systems on Turkish territory, and not about the sale of such weapons to Ankara on an emergency basis.

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BulgarianMilitary.com
Editorial team / TASS