The American Wall Street Journal said today, Friday, that President Joe Biden's administration will ask Congress to approve the sale of F-16 fighters to Turkey, in addition to another deal to sell new generation fighters. "F-35" (F-35) to Greece.

This newspaper quoted US officials as saying that the Biden administration is preparing to obtain congressional approval for the planned deal with Turkey, which is valued at $20 billion.

For its part, the US State Department said, "Turkey and Greece are allies within NATO (North Atlantic Treaty Organization), but we do not comment on defense sales before officially notifying Congress."

Ankara submitted a request to Washington in October 2021 to purchase 40 F-16 fighter jets manufactured by the American company, Lockheed Martin, and equipment for its current warplanes, to modernize its air force, after the purchase of F-16 aircraft stalled. -35" (F-35).

The Wall Street Journal reported that the two deals with Turkey and Greece are among the largest US arms sales in recent years.

Congress clause

The "Wall Street Journal" quoted officials as saying that congressional approval is contingent on Turkey's ratification of Sweden and Finland's accession to NATO.

The accession of Sweden and Finland to the alliance requires the approval of all its 30 member states.

Turkey asked these two countries to cooperate in several files before granting its approval for membership, especially the extradition of wanted persons from the Kurdistan Workers Party and the Fethullah Gulen group, which Ankara accuses of masterminding the 2016 coup attempt.

On the other hand, Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu stated today that Sweden's condemnation of the incident of hanging a puppet of President Recep Tayyip Erdogan in Stockholm is not enough, stressing that Sweden is required to fulfill its promises in the membership file.

Cavusoglu added - during a press conference - that his country notes Stockholm's keenness to fight terrorism, but terrorist groups are still continuing their activities in this country, he said.

For his part, Swedish Prime Minister Ulf Christerson said - in statements to a television channel - that the hanging doll incident was "very serious."

Christerson added that the incident "aims in my opinion to spoil Sweden's application to join NATO. It is dangerous for Swedish security to act in this way."

The police said they were not aware of the incident until it was over.