Ibrahim Kalin, a spokesman for Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, said that the approval of the United States to sell F-16 fighter jets to Turkey is going well, and may be completed within two months, and the Senate had canceled the terms of the sale. Ankara US warplanes.
Ankara submitted a request to Washington in October 2021 to purchase 40 F-16 fighters manufactured by the American company “Lockheed Martin” and nearly 80 modernization equipment for its current warplanes, to modernize its air forces after the failure to purchase aircraft. F-35" (F-35).
CNN Turk quoted Kalin as saying in an interview Thursday evening that the administration of US President Joe Biden "is making sincere efforts on this issue," adding that "when this happens, the F-16 problem will be resolved, the issue of The modernization and purchase of a new F-16 aircraft will be resolved."
Last September, Erdogan said he had received "positive" feedback from two US senators he met in New York regarding their potential support for the sale.
cancel terms
In October 2022, informed sources revealed that the Senate decided to cancel the conditions for the sale of “F-16” aircraft to Turkey, in its version of the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) for the year 2023, a draft that includes US defense budget.
These conditions, set by Senators Bob Menendez and Chris Van Hollen, relate to ensuring that US warplanes are not used for "continuous violations of Greek airspace", and are not used against the YPG, the military arm of the Kurdistan Workers' Party, which Turkey designates as a terrorist organization. .
Among the conditions that were also canceled was that Turkey agree to the accession of Sweden and Finland to the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO).
A chill toward Turkey has prevailed in the US Congress over the past few years after Ankara acquired Russian-made missile defense systems, which led to US sanctions and Turkey's exclusion from the F-35 fighter jet program.