‘At a standstill’: Türkiye’s F-35 buy faces headwinds

The News President Donald Trump’s plans to sell F-35 fighter jets to Türkiye remain stalled more than a month after he announced them, leaving Congress to navigate the resulting tension between a NATO ally and Israel. At issue is the requirement in US sanctions law that Türkiye offload its S-400 Russian air defense system in order to get access to F-35s — six of which it has already paid for, jets that have remained in the US since its expulsion from the program in 2019.

Disabling the S-400 is one possible solution to facilitate the Trump-backed sale, but one that risks further stoking tension with lawmakers who view the statute as requiring full divestment of the system. Another option is selling the Russian system to the UAE; Türkiye reportedly entered into talks for that last month, but the conversations don’t appear to have advanced, according to people familiar with the talks. The result is a limbo state for the F-35 deal, which Trump previewed at last month’s NATO summit alongside Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, who’s become a key ally.