US nixes proposal to let Turkish president's security guards buy guns

The Trump administration has withdrawn a proposal to let President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan's security guards buy $1.2 million in U.S.-made weapons, a congressional official said on Sept. 18, following a brawl during the president's visit to Washington this spring.

Earlier this year, the administration told Congress it planned to allow New Hampshire gunmaker Sig Sauer to sell the weapons, which include hundreds of semi-automatic handguns and ammunition. The notification triggered a period in which Congress could review the deal before final approval is granted. The weapons would have gone to an intermediary in Turkey for use by Erdoğan's presidential security forces.

But U.S. lawmakers began expressing strong opposition to the sale after a brawl on May 16 outside the home of the Turkish ambassador to Washington as Erdoğan was visiting. Nineteen people including 15 identified as Turkish security officials have been indicted by a U.S. grand jury.

In June, House Foreign Affairs Committee Chairman Ed Royce, R-Calif., wrote Secretary of State Rex Tillerson urging him to reject the deal and calling the conduct of the Turkish guards "unprofessional and brutal." A Senate panel has also approved a measure that would block the sale.

The State Department, in informing Congress that it was formally withdrawing the planned sale, said it was at the request of Sig Sauer, which had requested the license from the U.S. government that's needed to export weapons outside the U.S.

But the U.S. had already quietly put the sale on hold after the incident, and the Trump administration had informed the Turkish government that the sale wouldn't be allowed to take place. Sig Sauer appeared to have pulled its request for a license from the U.S....

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