IMF sheds light on impact of possible anti-Turkey US sanctions

WASHINGTON (Sputnik): The International Monetary Fund’s spokesman Gerry Rice said that it is too early to speculate on the repercussions if the United States imposes sanctions on Turkey over its deal to purchase S-400 surface-to-air missile defence systems from Russia.

“On the sanctions and so on, I wouldn’t want to speculate prematurely on a possible impact”, Rice said.

During the briefing, Rice also noted that the IMF continues to monitor the economic situation in Turkey very closely.

“We received no indication from the Turkish authorities that they are contemplating a request for financial assistance from the International Monetary Fund”, Rice added.

The statement comes after NBC News, citing sources familiar with the matter, reported on 21 May that Washington has given Ankara a deadline — the end of the first week of June — to either abandon the S-400 deal with Russia or face penalties. According to the report, the penalties would include sanctions, removal from Lockheed Martin’s F-35 program and the cancellation of 100 promised F-35 jets.

The United States has repeatedly warned Ankara against buying the Russian air defence systems, saying that they are incompatible with NATO systems and may expose weaknesses of the F-35 jets to Russia’s advantage.

Turkey, in turn, has insisted that it is not going to give up its $2.5 billion contract with Russia.

The first batch of S-400s is expected to be delivered to Turkey in July.