US President Donald Trump on Tuesday announced that Washington would lift US sanctions on Türkiye that were imposed in 2020 over Ankara's purchase of Russian defense missiles, while expressing a willingness to sell the fellow NATO ally F-35 fighter jets. The move would be a massive gesture from Trump to Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan whom he considers a close ally and would remove a major long-standing irritant in bilateral ties. Even as Washington and Ankara have enjoyed warmer ties under Trump, Türkiye's 2019 acquisition of the Russian S-400 system has long been a sore point for both sides, Reuters reported. In response to that purchase, Washington in 2020 imposed sanctions on a major Turkish defense company and removed Türkiye 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 Türkiye for a NATO summit. He added that his secretary of state and Treasury secretary were working on the issue. Trump was also upbeat about the possible sale of F-35 stealth fighter jets to Türkiye even as he did not say how exactly such a transaction would take place given the legal hurdles. "Türkiye has been, in many ways, much more loyal than other countries that we think would be loyal. ... It's a great plane, it's the best, currently the best plane by far. And it's certainly something we will consider," Trump said. Congress passed a law prohibiting any F-35 sales to Türkiye as long as Ankara retained the S-400s, saying the Russian system posed a security risk to US-made combat aircraft. Currently, the US law does not permit Türkiye to operate or possess the S-400 system if it wishes to rejoin the F-35 program.
