ISTANBUL: President Tayyip Erdogan’s spokesman said the process of the United States approving the sale of F-16 fighter jets to NATO member Turkiye was going well and could be completed within a couple of months.
Turkiye made a request to the United States in October 2021 to buy 40 Lockheed Martin Corp. F-16 fighters and nearly 80 modernization kits for its existing warplanes to update its air force after the purchase of F-35s fell through.
CNN Turk cited spokesman Ibrahim Kalin as saying in an interview with the broadcaster on Thursday evening that the administration of President Joe Biden was making sincere efforts on the issue.
“It’s not very easy to give a clear forecast but it appears there is a high probability of the process being completed in the next month or two,” Kalin was quoted as saying when asked if the United States would sell F-16s to Turkiye.
“When this happens the F-16 problem, both the modernization and the purchase of new F-16s, will be resolved.”
In September, Erdogan said he had received “positive” feedback from two US senators he met in New York on their potential support for the sale.
Sentiment toward Turkiye in the US Congress has turned sour over the past few years after Ankara acquired Russian-made defense missile systems, triggering US sanctions and Turkiye's removal from the F-35 fighter jet program.
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US may approve F-16 sale to Turkiye in two months, Erdogan’s spokesman says
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US may approve F-16 sale to Turkiye in two months, Erdogan’s spokesman says
- In September, Erdogan said he had received “positive” feedback from two US senators he met in New York on their potential support for the sale
Iraq’s Kataeb Hezbollah says commander killed in strike
BAGHDAD: The Tehran-backed Iraqi group Kataeb Hezbollah said on Thursday that one of its commanders was killed in a strike in southern Iraq the previous day.
Ahmad Al-Hamidawi, the secretary-general of the armed faction, mourned in a statement the loss of a “great commander,” Ali Hussein Al-Freiji, who had joined the group more than two decades ago.
Two sources from the faction told AFP on Wednesday that a strike hit a vehicle near the group’s main base in southern Iraq, killing two fighters.
The toll then rose to three, including the commander.
One source described the attack as a “Zionist-US strike.”
The group’s Jurf Al-Nasr base was the first Iraqi target of strikes blamed on Israel and the US, which later expanded to other areas.
Since the start of the war, the strikes have killed 15 fighters, mostly from Kataeb Hezbollah.
Iraq, which has recently regained a sense of stability but has long been a proxy battleground between the US and Iran, had said it did not want to be dragged into the war. But it has not been spared.
Several Iran-backed armed groups — known as the Islamic Resistance in Iraq, to which Kataeb Hezbollah also belongs — claim daily drone attacks on US bases.
The Islamic Resistance in Iraq on Thursday warned European countries not to join the war, threatening their “forces and bases in Iraq and the region.”
Earlier on Thursday, the Iraqi News Agency (INA) reported that security forces seized two rockets and a launchpad in the southern Basra province, that were set up to target a neighboring country.
Ahmad Al-Hamidawi, the secretary-general of the armed faction, mourned in a statement the loss of a “great commander,” Ali Hussein Al-Freiji, who had joined the group more than two decades ago.
Two sources from the faction told AFP on Wednesday that a strike hit a vehicle near the group’s main base in southern Iraq, killing two fighters.
The toll then rose to three, including the commander.
One source described the attack as a “Zionist-US strike.”
The group’s Jurf Al-Nasr base was the first Iraqi target of strikes blamed on Israel and the US, which later expanded to other areas.
Since the start of the war, the strikes have killed 15 fighters, mostly from Kataeb Hezbollah.
Iraq, which has recently regained a sense of stability but has long been a proxy battleground between the US and Iran, had said it did not want to be dragged into the war. But it has not been spared.
Several Iran-backed armed groups — known as the Islamic Resistance in Iraq, to which Kataeb Hezbollah also belongs — claim daily drone attacks on US bases.
The Islamic Resistance in Iraq on Thursday warned European countries not to join the war, threatening their “forces and bases in Iraq and the region.”
Earlier on Thursday, the Iraqi News Agency (INA) reported that security forces seized two rockets and a launchpad in the southern Basra province, that were set up to target a neighboring country.
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