Ahead of Trump’s trip to Turkey, Netanyahu says Ankara shouldn’t get F-35s jets

PM also laments sale of fighter engines, warns providing Ankara with advanced weapons will upset balance of power in region; rejects notion of tension with US president

As US President Donald Trump heads to Turkey for a NATO summit, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Monday urged Washington not to sell advanced weaponry to Ankara, and in particular F-35 jets.

Speaking to Fox News, Netanyahu called Turkey “a regime infected by the Muslim Brotherhood, an extreme movement that hates America and chants ‘Death to America.'”

“I don’t think they should be given F-35s or engines for their fighter jets,” he insisted.

Last month, Trump seemed to indicate he would agree to sell Turkey F110 fighter jet engines and readmit the country to the F-35 program. Turkey needs the engines for its KAAN fifth-generation fighter jets, which it began developing after it was excluded from the F-35 program in 2019.

Netanyahu argued that such a move would “upset the balance of power in the Middle East, which is ultimately guaranteed by Israel’s air superiority and also America’s posture in the Middle East.” Israel has dozens of F-35s in its inventory.

He called Turkey “a great country” but lamented that it is ruled by Recep Tayyip Erdogan, who, he said, openly threatens Israel with destruction and occupies half of Cyprus.

Reuters reported last month that the Trump administration has formally notified Congress of its intention to sell more than $700 million of jet engines to Turkey. The report cited two sources and a copy of the formal notification seen by the news agency.

Asked at the time if he was preparing to sell the engines and F-35s to Turkey, Trump said “I think so, look… I’m going to probably do something that’s going to make him [Erdogan] very happy.”

Pressed on what specifically needs to happen for the F-35 sale to go through, Trump punted the question to Vice President JD Vance.

“There are certain things that we have to certify that have happened in order to comply with American law. The president has asked us to do that… so they can get the F-35s… This is really a congressional thing,” Vance said before Trump chimed in, insisting that the issue would be sorted out.

Sale of the F-35 to Turkey would be seen as an important gesture to Ankara ahead of the pivotal NATO summit on Tuesday and Wednesday, as well as to Erdogan, whom Trump considers a key ally. Aside from Israel, Greece is also opposed to such a sale.

The fighter jet, a top-of-the-line stealth plane, was originally developed by the US in partnership with other NATO countries under a program called the Joint Strike Fighter. However, the US booted Turkey from the development of the F-35 after Erdogan went ahead with purchases of the S-400 missile defense from Russia.

US law does not permit Turkey to operate or possess the S-400 system if it wishes to rejoin the F-35 program. However, US Ambassador to Turkey Tom Barrack said in December that the warm relationship between Trump and Erdogan helped the two sides hold “the most fruitful conversations we have had on this topic in nearly a decade.”

Israeli companies manufacture some key components of the F-35 system, including a state-of-the-art helmet that is a joint project by Elbit Systems and the American Rockwell Collins.

While Israel’s relations with Turkey, which were once the Jewish state’s strongest with any country in the region, have drastically deteriorated following Erdogan’s rise to power, they have been particularly strained since the start of the Gaza war sparked by the Hamas-led October 7, 2023, attack.

No date on Netanyahu visit to Washington

In other remarks to Fox, Netanyahu said that no date has been set for an upcoming visit to Washington, DC, to meet with Trump, and once again downplayed recent tensions over the US-Iran memorandum of understanding.

“We see eye-to-eye on just about everything,” Netanyahu claimed.

“We have disagreements from time to time, but we work them out because we’re allies,” he said, noting that he and Trump speak about disagreements “in open conversation.”

“The president has his way of expressing things, and so do I,” Netanyahu said.

“We’re allies,” he repeated. “We’re your model ally.”

He stressed that Israel respects the US, and that there are “multiple ways of ironing out our differences as allies that respect each other.”

The MOU extended by 60 days a temporary ceasefire in the joint US-Israel war with Iran, though Israel was not a party to the deal. Israeli officials are concerned that the MOU does not do enough to prevent the weaponization of Iran’s nuclear program or place restrictions on its ballistic missile development.

The MOU also called for an end to hostilities in Lebanon, where Israel has been battling Hezbollah after the Iran-backed terror group attacked Israel in support of its patron. US-hosted talks led to Israel and Lebanon signing an agreement to stop the war, which Hezbollah rejected, though it reached its own shaky understanding with Israel to reduce the fighting.

Netanyahu said Israel would “like to see peace with Lebanon advance” during his trip to Washington. “The fact that we basically hammered the Iranian regime, we weakened it substantially, and that opened the path for more peace deals.”

He emphasized that the Islamic Republic is “not America’s friend, and we should not let them have nuclear weapons or the means to deliver them.”

“This is a battle of freedom versus fanaticism,” Netanyahu said.

Asked why the regime in Iran, which is avowed to destroy Israel, is still standing despite the widespread joint bombing campaign by the US and Israel, Netanyahu said it was because it has “a few hundred thousand goons who kill, murder in broad daylight and at night. They murder their own people.”

Reflecting on America’s 250th anniversary, Netanyahu called the US “a tremendous force for good…without America there wouldn’t be any democracy in the world or any freedom in the world.”

“God bless America,” he concluded.