US President Donald Trump is looking at lifting sanctions on Türkiye and selling fighter jets to the country, even the fifth-generation F-35s, Fox News reported on Friday.
Citing two sources, Fox News said that, following last Sunday’s phone call with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, Trump expressed an intent to help finalize the sale of F-16 fighter jets to Türkiye, a deal that has long been in the works.
Trump is also open to the idea of selling Türkiye F-35 jets, “if the two sides can come to an agreement that renders Türkiye’s Russian S-400 system inoperable,” it added, referring to the dispute under which Türkiye was suspended from the program to make the jets.
During Sunday’s call, Erdoğan told Trump that to improve bilateral defense cooperation, it is necessary to end the sanctions on Türkiye under the Countering America’s Adversaries Through Sanctions Act (CAATSA) as well as to finalize the F-16 procurement process and bring Türkiye back into the F-35 program.
According to the report, Trump’s team has requested legal and technical analysis on ways to avoid determining that Türkiye is in violation of the CAATSA.
In 2019, during Trump’s first term, the US suspended Türkiye from the F-35 program after objecting to it buying a Russian S-400 missile defense system, claiming the Russian system would endanger the fighter jets.
Türkiye has said repeatedly that there is no conflict between the two and proposed a commission to study the issue. Türkiye also said it fulfilled its obligations on the F-35s and that the suspension broke the rules. Ankara maintains that the deal would strengthen not only Türkiye, but also NATO.
Last year, the US State Department approved the pending $23 billion sale of F-16 aircraft and modernization kits to Türkiye. Talks on details of the deal have been continuing.