Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has responded to ongoing Israeli and Greek objections to the possible US sale of F-35 fighter jets to Turkey by mocking the Turkish enemies and rivals.
Opposition to the potential stealth fighter transfer raised by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Greece’s Kyriakos Mitsotakis "has no place in my world," Erdogan said in his characteristically bellicose manner.
"Hopefully, when the F-35s are delivered to Turkey, the whole world will say America kept its promise," Erdogan said at a Wednesday closing news conference for the NATO summit hosted in Ankara.
Netanyahu told Fox News on Monday that "Turkey is a great country, but it's governed by a man who calls openly for the annihilation of Israel" - in reference to Erdogan. "He occupies half of Cyprus, a NATO country. He's threatening Greece, another NATO country, and he talks openly about conquering Jerusalem."
The Israeli leader also said that giving Ankara F-35s or fighter jet engines would "upset the power balance in the Middle East, which is ultimately guaranteed by Israeli air superiority and also by, I think, by America's posture in the Middle East." He's been urgently requestion that the White House reign in Erdogan and his provocative rhetoric.
However, Israeli pressure did nothing to sway Trump while the US President was in Turkey. Trump strongly signaled he's ready to go through with the sale of F-35s, saying of Erdogan, "We are great friends".
What's more is that Trump declared - to the surprise of US Congress (who will want a word on this) that he'll be removing US sanctions which were imposed on Turkey during his own prior administration:
In response to that purchase, Washington in 2020 imposed sanctions on a major Turkish defense company and removed Turkey from the F-35 stealth fighter jet program, where Ankara was also a production partner.
"We’re going to be taking the sanctions off," Trump told reporters just before his meeting with Erdogan during a visit to Turkey for a NATO summit. He added that his secretary of state and Treasury secretary were working on the issue.
In the moment, Secretary of State Marco Rubio looked a bit surprised, while President Erdogan beamed with a sense of victory...
Later, Erdogan voiced that in reality the United States is "not enforcing any sanctions against us" and that "by and large, those measures have already been lifted."
He said of his top national security officials, "They have all witnessed firsthand that these sanctions are not being applied to Türkiye. So, we have no such problem. And whenever an issue does arise, Mr. Trump, thankfully, returns our call within 24 hours whenever we reach out to him. Within that same 24-hour period, we receive the response we need."
The Turkish foreign ministry has also hit back at recent Israeli statements, saying, "The baseless allegations recently circulated by Israeli officials in a coordinated manner and with calculated timing are part of a disinformation campaign." The statement added: "Netanyahu and his partners in crime deliberately distort any criticism directed at them and seek to divert attention through a systematic propaganda effort."