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Tom Hussain

The United States is set to resume military sales to Turkey, Nato’s second-largest military power, after President Donald Trump said sanctions imposed against Ankara over its procurement of Russian air defence systems seven years ago would soon be lifted.
“We don’t want to sanction friends,” Trump told journalists at the Nato summit in the Turkish capital on Wednesday, while emphasising his “good chemistry” with President Recep Tayyip Erdogan.
Trump further said he would soon take a final decision on restoring Turkey’s participation in the Joint Strike Fighter (JSF) programme – raising expectations among observers of a “face-saving” deal in which Ankara would transfer its Russian S-400 systems to a third country in return for US F-35 stealth warplanes.
Turkey was ejected from the F-35 programme – for which it was manufacturing some components – in 2019 over US concerns that the cutting-edge jet’s unrivalled stealth capabilities could be compromised by its exposure to Russian technology.
The understanding reached between Washington and Ankara “is a strategic reset in spirit but not yet in practical terms”, said Asli Aydintasbas, director of the Turkey project at the Brookings Institution in Washington. “Clearly, President Trump values his relationship with Erdogan and wants Turkey to be a central player in his Nato, Europe and Middle East policies.”

After years of turmoil, “this is the closest Erdogan has come to the reset with Washington he has been seeking” – but it is “not full normalisation yet”, she said. “The congressional part of the equation is still not there.”
While Trump can use his executive power to waive sanctions imposed on Turkey’s defence production industry under the Countering America’s Adversaries Through Sanctions Act (Caatsa), Congress must be convinced that the threat posed by the Russian S-400s has been removed before its access to the JSF can be reinstated.
For Erdogan, the lifting of Caatsa sanctions, movement on engines for the Kaan fighter, and the prospect of returning to the F-35 conversation “all signal that Turkey is being brought back into the Western defence-industrial fold after years in the cold”, Aydintasbas said. “It strengthens his argument that Turkey is an indispensable ally with a direct line to Trump.”
Israeli factor
Nonetheless, Turkey’s acquisition of the F-35 is bound to face fierce opposition from Israel’s many supporters in Congress.
In the build-up to the Nato summit, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu made multiple appearances on US television to voice his opposition to the lifting of sanctions and the F-35 sale to Turkey.
With Trump saying he had “an obligation” to supply Turkey with up to 80 US-built F110 engines for its indigenous Kaan stealth fighters, Netanyahu complained that Israel’s air force could lose its technological superiority over rivals in the Middle East.
“Everybody understands that notwithstanding the personal friendship that President Trump has with Erdogan, it doesn’t make Turkey a friendly state to the United States,” Netanyahu said on CNN on Tuesday. “To the contrary … he threatens to destroy my country!”

Washington is legally bound, under the Naval Vessel Transfer Act of 2008, to ensure that any arms sale in the Middle East does not erode Israel’s military edge over its neighbours.
The US president responded to Netanyahu’s claims in Wednesday’s press conference, saying: “I hear some people saying about their relationship with Israel.”
If Turkey had wanted to clash with Israel, it “could have gotten into the fight on the other side”, Trump said, describing the Nato member as ‘a very powerful military nation”.
“Maybe they didn’t do that because of me,” he added.
At no point during the Middle East’s conflicts since October 2023 has war ever appeared likely between the two countries, despite exchanges of harsh rhetoric.


Israel is the “biggest impediment to a reset” of defence cooperation between US and Turkey, according to Aydintasbas.
The Israeli government “seems determined to use its access to Trump and US Congress” to prevent Turkey’s return to the F-35 programme, she said. “Israel wants to preserve its own military edge in the region and views Turkey as its top regional competitor.”
Both countries are locked in a rivalry for regional influence and view each other as expansionist.
“The larger issue is political and strategic,” she said, with Israel increasingly viewing Turkey not just as a critic of the Gaza war or its occupation of southwest Syria, but as a long-term regional competitor.
Turkey, for its part, sees Israel as “becoming too dominant after the Iran war and wants to prevent a regional order shaped entirely by Israeli military power”, Aydintasbas said.
Convincing Congress
However, former Pentagon official David Des Roches said Israel “is not the important issue” in determining Turkey’s participation in the JSF programme.
“The resistance will come from within the US government. It is very, very, very protective of the multi-hundred-billion-dollar investment we’ve made in stealth,” said Des Roches, a senior fellow at the Washington-based Gulf International Forum.
Having agreed last year to sell F-35s to Saudi Arabia, Trump also wanted to offer the JSF to the United Arab Emirates, but “he can’t do that because of our requirements to protect stealth”.
Similarly, Washington does not share Israel’s view that the acquisition of fifth-generation fighters by Turkey and other US partners in the region poses a threat.

“The American view is that if a region is able to defend itself, the US does not have to,” Des Roches said. “We do not regard any of our partners as countries that spread instability. We regard them as countries that enforce stability, that benefit from the rules-based order, and that benefit from free trade.”
Trump’s decision to bring Turkey back in from the cold was motivated by the need for Ankara’s cooperation against Russia in the Black Sea, and against Iran and its proxies in Syria and Iraq, according to Des Roches.
“Right now, Iran is the biggest issue in the region, and whatever beef the US has with Turkey is much, much smaller,” Des Roches said. All the same, Turkey would “have to get rid of the S-400s if it’s going to get the JSF”.


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Turkey was ejected from the American F-35 programme in 2019 after it bought Russian air-defence systems


Turkey was ejected from the American F-35 programme in 2019 after it bought Russian air-defence systems.


US opens door for Turkey’s return to F-35 stealth jet programme – but Israel’s not happy

.css-1c6uqr6{color:inherit;font-weight:inherit;font-size:inherit;font-family:inherit;line-height:inherit;overflow-wrap:break-word;}Turkey was ejected from the American F-35 programme in 2019 after it bought Russian air-defence systems

Turkey was ejected from the American F-35 programme in 2019 after it bought Russian air-defence systems