Donald Trump is considering selling F-35 Turkey aircraft, there is a condition

US President Donald Trump, after talking to Turkey leader, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, considers the abolition of sanctions imposed on Ankara and selling her multi-purpose aircraft F-35. The condition is to “immobilize” by Turkey by Russian air defense systems S -400 – informs Fox News, citing its sources.

Sources cited by the American station argue that during a recent telephone conversation with President Erdogan, Trump announced that he was open to the withdrawal of Ankara's exclusion from the F-35 supply program, for which Türkiye She has already paid partly if she agrees to dismantle or transfer Russian installations to the base of the US controlled by the US. The launchers would, for example, reach the Incirlik base in the south of the country.

According to the sources of Fox News, Trump's team asked for legal and technical analysis a few days ago how to avoid Turkey's recognition as a state that violates sanctions under the Countering America Americ's Adversaries Through Sanctions Act (CAATSA).

Change in US-Turcy relations?

The possible consent of Washington would mean a change in US-Turcja relations, which remain tense since Ankara in 2019 purchased Russian anti-aircraft and anti-cancer defense systems, which resulted in the withdrawal of it on the initiative of F-35 and subsequent sanctions.

The first step towards warming these relationships was last year's Congress decision to sell Turkey 40 F-16 fighters and modernization sets for 79 aircraft from the current Turkish fleet for $ 23 billion. Negotiations are currently underway between the Ministry of Defense in Ankara and the American Lockheed Martin group, which builds the F-35.

Türkiye planned to buy over 100 F-35 aircraft and cooperated with Lockheed Martin itself, producing parts of the hull and chassis for these fighters. The contract with the Russians worth $ 2.5 billion, however, laid an end to this partnership, and United States redirected Turkish orders to other buyers.

Washington is afraid that if Türkiye received the F-35 and at the same time had Russian systems capable of collecting intelligence information, the advanced Stealth technology in which the fighters were made could fall into the hands of the Kremlin.

The idea is not new

The idea of ​​removing the S-400 as a condition for re-entering the F-35 program is not new. During previous negotiations, American officials pressed Turkey to completely give up Russian systems, but Ankara rejected these demands, citing her sovereign right to choose the partners from which she acquires weapons.

Erdogan explained that the transaction with Russia It was a response to delays in the purchase of American Patriot rocket systems, which Türkiye has been seeking for years.

Analysts, cited by Fox News, notice that Trump's current readiness to look for a compromise can signal a pragmatic approach, putting the relationship with a strategic ally under the first place under the strategic ally under NATO.

Türkiye, on the other hand, believes that the Americans changed their position when they learned about the progress of work on the Turkish plane of the fifth generation Kaan, as at the end of last year, defense minister Yasar Guler argued.