Senate Foreign Relations Committee

US senators declined on Thursday to block the sale of F-16s to Turkey, despite voicing deep disdain for Turkey's conduct as an ally. They were upholding an unofficial bargain that Turks would get the fighter jets if they stopped blocking Sweden's accession to NATO.

"A deal's a deal," said Idaho Senator Jim Risch, the ranking Republican on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee.

The Biden administration has assured the US Congress that it will closely monitor Turkey's behavior towards Greece, particularly focusing on potential overflights of Turkish F-16s over Greek islands and violations of Greek airspace, Chris Van Hollen, a Democrat who sits on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, says in an interview with Kathimerini, emphasizing that there will be consequences

Ending months of negotiations, the U.S. government on Friday approved a $23 billion deal to sell F-16 warplanes to Türkiye, after Ankara ratified Sweden's NATO membership, the State Department said.

As required by U.S. law, the State Department notified Congress of the agreement, as well as a separate $8.6 billion sale of 40 F-35s to Greece.

If there's one important thing we have learned, it is that you don't give up on your friends when they are down. This applies to life, it also applies to international relations. US Senator Bob Menendez is facing serious charges of corruption and everything indicates that, even if he is not forced to resign immediately, he will not be able to be re-elected in 2024.

The Justice Department is weighing possible charges against Sen. Bob Menendez after a yearslong public-corruption probe, the Wall Street Journal reported on Aug. 25. 

Prosecutors are expected to meet with his lawyers in the coming weeks ahead of a final decision, the people familiar with the matter said. 

Senior lawmakers from the United States and Europe are calling for a change in the Western diplomatic approach toward Serbia and Kosovo amid concern that tensions between the two could rapidly spiral out of control.

US Senator Bob Menendez said on Wednesday he still had concerns about the sale of F-16 fighter jets to Turkey, and had not changed his hold on the sale of the aircraft.

There is "nothing new," Menendez, the Democratic chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, told Reuters at the Capitol. "We continue to raise our concerns."

US Senator and Chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, Bob Menendez, announced on Friday the introduction an amendment to the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) for fiscal year 2024 that would extend the time required to renew the arms embargo on the Republic of Cyprus.

Turkey's EU membership was thrown on the negotiating table at the last minute by President Recep Tayyip Erdogan ahead of Tuesday's NATO meeting in what is seen as an attempt to prove to Turkish public opinion that he has won additional gains to lift Ankara's veto on Sweden's membership of the Alliance. 

And the confusion doesn't stop there. As war, inflation and migration helps to expand competition on the far reaches of the political spectrum, the more established radical-right players are circling the wagons. On Wednesday, the SPD - Czechia's only far-right parliamentary party - signed a memorandum of cooperation with the non-parliamentary Trikolora.