Senators said Oct. 17 that they plan to continue to move forward with separate bills placing sanctions on Turkey for beginning military operations in northeast Syria, even as senior White House officials have announced a deal has been made to allow Syrian Kurds to evacuate the area.
Sens. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) and Chris Van Hollen (D-Md.) on Thursday officially introduced a bipartisan bill that banned arms sales to Turkey – among other sanctions – until a ceasefire is achieved and Turkish troops move away from the area. Flanked by Sens. Marsha Blackburn (R-Tenn.), Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.) and Jeanne Shaheen (D-N.H.) to offer support for the bill, Graham and Van Hollen told reporters during a press conference that while the U.S.-Turkey relationship is “worth salvaging,” lawmakers were prepared to place steep sanctions on Ankara in response to its attacks on the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) who have been allies of the United States in the fight against the Islamic State (ISIS) in Syria.
“If you want to be a NATO ally, you’ve got to act like a NATO ally,” Graham said during the press conference.
Just after the availability concluded, Vice President Mike Pence and Secretary of State Mike Pompeo announced they had reached a deal with Turkish leaders for a halt in operations for five days that would allow the SDF to evacuate the northeast Syrian region, after which Turkish troops would continue to move into the area.
Graham told reporters afterward that he was optimistic about the new developments, but that he would continue to garner support for the sanctions bill. He said he told the White House “to consider the Congress the cavalry here: We’re ready to come and hit Turkey hard if they don’t get out of Syria and reset the table.”
Sens. Jim Risch (R-Idaho) and Bob Menendez (D-N.J.), the chair and ranking member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, unveiled on Thursday their own sanctions bill that also includes the ban of arms sales to Turkey.
Risch also expressed optimism to reporters regarding the agreement between U.S. and Turkish senior officials on Thursday.
“Anytime you can broker a disengagement it’s a good thing,” he said. “I think before we start criticizing this, … let’s let this play out and see what happens.”
In the meantime, “we’re going to keep putting one foot in front of the other to move the bill,” Risch added.
Meanwhile, the Pentagon continues to enjoy “good military-to-military” relations with Turkey and is working through its response with relation to foreign military sales, Undersecretary of Defense for Acquisition and Sustainment Ellen Lord said Thursday morning.
Speaking at the annual ComDef conference in Washington, D.C., Lord said Turkey has long been a good partner in FMS sales, and that the Pentagon is assessing the decision by many European allies to cease the sale of weapons to Turkey for its incursion into Syria and what it means for the U.S. Defense Department.
There is ongoing progress to remove the production of over 900 parts for the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter outside of Turkey in response to Ankara’s purchase of the Russian-made S-400 anti-aircraft system, Lord said.