US Senate moves step closer to selling Turkey F-16 warplanes

The US Senate has removed two amendments to a bill that limited sales of F-16 fighter jets to Turkey, congressional sources told Turkish state media outlet Anadolu Agency.

The removals come as the Senate debates the 2023 National Defence Authorisation Act (NDAA) bill, which includes US defence spending for the upcoming year.

Amendments to the bill, which had been made by Democratic senators, looked to make potential F-16 sales to Turkey contingent on Ankara easing its pressure on US military allies in the eastern Mediterranean.

The F-16 issue looked set to weaken US-Turkey ties again after Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said last month that Ankara could turn to Russia for warplanes.

Turkey was kicked out of a programme to replace a wide range of fighter, strike and ground attack aircraft for NATO allies after it acquired an advanced Russian missile defence system in 2019.

As US-Turkish relations warmed in response to Russia's invasion of Ukraine, US President Joe Biden told Erdogan in June that he would support the sale of less advanced F-16 jets.

But Democratic lawmakers who oppose the sales have since filed amendments that include ensuring the warplanes "are not used by Turkey for repeated unauthorised territorial overflights of Greece or military operations against United States allies, including the Syrian Democratic Forces, in the fight against ISIS [Islamic State]".

They came as Turkey threatened to step up its operations against the SDF in northern Syria, and escalated a war of words against Greece over airspace and maritime boundaries and potential energy sources.

 Turkish presidential spokesperson Ibrahim Kalin on Wednesday hailed the reported bill changes as a "positive step".

"This is good for us. They beat back the pressure from the Greek lobby. If we make the F-16 deal, we will have done it under the conditions we want," Kalin said from the Kazakh capital Astana, where he is accompanying Erdogan on a two-day visit.

Erdogan will meet with his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin in Astana on Thursday.

The NDAA bill will go to Congress next month.