Six members of the United States House of Representatives have called on Secretary of State Antony Blinken to ensure that the new F-16 jets Turkey will receive from America will not be used for actions against Greece.
In a letter to Blinken, Representatives Chris Pappas, Gus Bilirakis, Dina Titus, Nicole Malliotakis, Farank Pallone, Jr. and John Sarbanes wrote:
"Given Turkey's history of using American F-16s for overflights in the Aegean and to challenge Greek sovereignty, we request mechanisms that provide for the pause, delay, or snapback of the transfer of American weapons to Turkey if it resumes its destabilizing actions in the Eastern Mediterranean that threaten or undermine US national security interests or NATO security architecture."
The news comes as the U.S. agreed in April to sell Turkey $259 million in software it has long sought to upgrade its fleet of U.S. F-16 fighter jets. State Department approval of the sale comes about two weeks after Turkey dropped its objections to Finland joining NATO.
