The U.S. Senate has removed two amendments introduced by Democratic Senators Bob Menendez and Chris van Hollen to restrict the sale of F-16 fighter jets to Turkey from the draft version of the annual U.S. defence spending bill, Greek reporter said on Wednesday.
The Senate launched official debate on Tuesday over the 2023 National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA), which includes a $817 billion bill concerning the security policies of the country.
The Senate will continue to debate over the bill after the November 8 mid-term elections. The fiscal 2023 NDAA must pass the Senate and House of Representatives before it could be submitted to President Joe Biden for its ratification.
The first amendment called on the US president to confirm that “such a transfer is in the national interest of the United States” and requires “concrete steps taken to ensure that such F-16s are not used by Turkey for repeated unauthorized territorial overflights of Greece.”
The second amendment introduced additional conditions for Turkey to purchase or modernize its F-16 fighter jets, raising concern over Turkish efforts to undermine the Syrian Democratic Forces and requiring Ankara to recognize Sweden and Finland’s NATO accession, Greek reporter said.
However, Greek government spokesperson Yiannis Economou said on Wednesday that the balance of power in the field with Turkey has changed in Greece’s favor, due to the government’s choices, Greek reporter revealed.
“SYRIZA’s press office and the Turkish News Agency Anadolu are seeking to present a stage in the process of debating the bill as an accomplished fact. An affair for which nobody can presume to say with certainty either the time or, more importantly, on what terms, it will end,” Greek reporter cited Economou as saying.
In October 2021, Turkey requested the U.S. to purchase forty Lockheed Martin-made F-16 fighters and eighty modernization kits for its existing fighter jets.
Democratic Senators Bob Menendez and Chris van Hollen introduced two amendments to the defense bill in an attempt to restrict the sale of the fighter jets to Turkey.
Ahval