“We have offered alternatives to Turkey, they know exactly what to do if they want to get out from underneath these sanctions,” Sherman said in an interview with CNN Turk. “We have talked about ways to take the necessary steps. And this will be a decision for Turkey to take.”
"I hope that we can find a way forward," she added.
Sherman had visited Ankara this week, the first visit to Turkey by a Biden administration official.
Either Turkey will move the S-400 missile defence system out of the country, or send it back to Russia: Those are the alternatives currently on offer. There had been speculation that Turkey could move the S-400 to Azerbaijan or Qatar as a compromise, but there has been no such offer by Ankara thus far.
Washington imposed sanctions on Turkish officials in December 2020 under a US law that bars significant military transactions with Russia. Turkey was also removed from the fifth-generation F-35 fighter jet programme by the Pentagon in 2019 due to concerns over possible Russian espionage through the S-400s.
ZZ/PR