Rand Paul

Endy Zemenides, the executive director of the Hellenic American Leadership Council, joins Thanos Davelis to break down Thursday's debate in the Senate on the Turkey F-16 deal initiated by Senator Rand Paul, the message it sends about US-Turkey ties, and more.

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.

Türkiye is moving closer to acquiring a fleet of F-16 fighter jets from the United States as the draft offer and acceptance letters have been officially received, according to a defense ministry official.

Türkiye expects to receive the draft offer and acceptance letters for the procurement of F-16 fighter jets from the United States by the end of this month, according to defense sources.

The U.S. Congress has given its final approval for the sale of 40 new F-16 fighter jets to Türkiye under a $23 billion deal as the 15-day objection period concluded on Feb. 10.

The approval follows the official notification from the Biden administration to Congress on Jan. 26.

Defense Ministry sources have expressed confidence that the proposed measure in the U.S. Senate to prevent the sale of F-16 fighter jets to Türkiye is unlikely to impede the process.

In response to inquiries, sources said they "do not expect any negativity" in the approval of the F-16 sale despite a recent proposal by Republican Senator Rand Paul.

A Republican Senator for Kentucky, Rand Paul, has submitted a joint resolution opposing the proposed sale of military equipment to Turkey on Monday.

Paul, a member of the Senate's Committee on Foreign Relations, has clashed with President Joe Biden's administration over the sale of 40 F-16s and a variety of other military equipment to Turkey.

The reviews are starting to come in as details emerge about the debt ceiling agreement reached by President Joe Biden and House Speaker Kevin McCarthy.

Even before seeing those details, some lawmakers were criticizing the deal as not doing enough to tackle the nation's debt, while others worried it's too austere and will harm many low-income Americans.

Donald Trump's historic second impeachment trial will launch this week with a debate and a vote on whether it's even constitutional to prosecute the former president over the deadly Capitol siege now that he's no longer in office.

The US Senate has voted overwhelmingly to ratify North Macedonia's entry into NATO as the alliance's 30th member.

Senators voted 91-2 on Tuesday to approve North Macedonia's accession to the North Atlantic Treaty Organization. The no votes came from Republican Sens. Rand Paul of Kentucky and Mike Lee of Utah.