Qatar Abides by US Sanctions Regime, Purchase of S-400s Not Yet Finalized - Doha

WASHINGTON (Sputnik) - The Persian Gulf nation of Qatar will honor US sanctions in signing new agreements, including negotiating a deal to purchase the S-400 air defense systems from Russia, Qatari Foreign Minister Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al Thani said in Washington, DC on Thursday.

"There is nothing signed yet, and what I can assure you that Qatar is always enduring the compliance with the international law and also with the sanctions system here, the sanctions regime in the United States, so we are taking everything into consideration," Al Thani said when asked about Qatar negotiating an S-400 systems purchase from Moscow.

According to the minister, the possible purchase of S-400 systems doesn't mean Qatar will choose Russia as its new major partner instead of the United States.

"We have very close cooperation with Washington, but this does not mean that we can not look for other options," he stressed, noting that he doesn't think that Qatar-US relations will deteriorate in future.

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In December, Qatar's ambassador to Russia Fahad bin Mohammed Al-Attiyah revealed in an interview with RIA Novosti that Doha was in talks with Moscow on a purchase of Russian-made air defense systems. He also unveiled that the systems in question were the S-400 "Triumph" anti-aircraft missile system and the "Pantsir-S1" self-propelled anti-aircraft missile system.