US President has said he would sell fighter jets to Ankara, which has become a regional adversary of Israel
Times of Israel
US President Donald Trump on Monday dismissed Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s public cautioning against Washington selling F-35 fighter jets to Turkey, praising the NATO ally one day before he is set to meet Netanyahu at the White House.
‘Nobody tells me what we should or shouldn’t be selling,’ Trump told reporters aboard Air Force One. ‘Turkey has been a tremendous ally for me.’
Turkish-Israeli relations collapsed following the Hamas-led October 7, 2023, attack and the war in Gaza, and Israeli officials, including the prime minister, have lately spoken of Ankara as a regional adversary. Speaking to Fox News earlier this month, Netanyahu called Turkey ‘a regime infected by the Muslim Brotherhood, an extreme movement that hates America and chants ‘Death to America.’’
‘I don’t think they should be given F-35s or engines for their fighter jets,’ he insisted at the time.
On Air Force One, Trump nodded to the tensions between Jerusalem and Ankara before lavishing more praise on Turkey. He has previously spoken highly of his relationship with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan.
‘Turkey’s not a big fan of Israel, not a great fan of Bibi, but they’ve been great for me,’ he added, offering a window into how he makes foreign policy decisions.
He called Turkey a ‘very powerful country,’ and said it had a ‘tremendous military, very big military, very powerful, has a lot of great equipment.’
Trump had indicated earlier this month that he would approve the F-35 sale, but that hit a snag: The State Department informed Congress last week that Ankara still does not qualify for the purchase.
Turkey joined a multinational program to purchase F-35 fighter jets from the United States, but was removed from it in 2020 over its purchase of Russian S-400 air defense systems.
The S-400 purchase initiated US sanctions of Turkey under the Countering America’s Adversaries Through Sanctions Act. While Trump announced in his July 7 meeting with Erdogan that he would be lifting those sanctions, the State Department letter indicated that had yet to happen.
‘Our policy regarding Turkey’s purchase of F-35s remains unchanged and fully consistent,’ read a State Department letter to a congressman who had inquired about the issue.
‘This includes resolving the S-400 issue by Turkey no longer possessing the system or associated equipment, providing assurances against its future acquisition, and meeting the other statutory certification requirements,’ the letter continued.
‘Turkey has not yet met these conditions,’ it added, while not ruling out the possibility that Ankara could later meet them.