| The Biden administration will seek congressional approval for a $20 billion sale of new F-16 jet fighters to Turkey, the Wall Street Journal reported on January 13, but Senate Foreign Relations Committee Chair Bob Menendez (D-NJ) again vowed to block the deal.
- According to the Journal, the sale is intended to encourage Turkey to end its continuing block on Sweden and Finland joining NATO. The deal is larger than previously expected, while the administration is also hoping to sell F-35 warplanes to Greece.
- After the administration provided Congress with informal notice of the plan, however, Menendez said he would not approve the sale unless Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan improves Turkey’s human rights record and ends its “alarming and destabilizing behavior” toward NATO allies. The issue will likely be a priority during Foreign Minister Mevlüt Çavuşoğlu’s trip to Washington this week.
- Quizzed on Turkey’s moves toward rapprochement with Syria, meanwhile, State Department Ned Price said, “We do not support countries upgrading their relations or expressing support to rehabilitate the brutal dictator Bashar al-Assad.”
- More via www.mesop.de
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