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2023-07-12 The Grand Turk
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Biden thanks Erdogan for Sweden decision, backs F-16s sale
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[AlAhram] US President Joe The Big Guy Biden
 ...46th president of the U.S. SOld, boring, a plagiarist, fond of hair sniffing and grabbing the protruding parts of women, and not whatcha call brilliant ... or is that an act?...
thanked his Ottoman Turkish counterpart His Enormity, Sultan Recep Tayyip Erdogan the First
...Turkey's version of Mohammed Morsi but they voted him back in so they deserve him. It's a sin, a shame, and a felony to insult the president of Turkey. In Anatolia did Recep Bey a stately Presidential Palace decree, that has 1100 rooms. That's 968 more than in the White House, 400 more than in Versailles, and 325 more than Buckingham Palace, so you know who's really more important...
on Tuesday for his "courage" in dropping opposition to Sweden's entry to NATO
...the North Atlantic Treaty Organization. A collection of multinational and multilingual and multicultural armed forces, all of differing capabilities, working toward a common goal by pulling in different directions...
At a meeting during the NATO summit in Vilnius, Biden celebrated the conclusion of a major diplomatic push to get Erdogan to stop blocking Sweden's application.
"I want to thank you for your diplomacy and your courage to take that on. And I want to thank you for your leadership," Biden told Erdogan.
Frustration had been mounting in Western capitals at Erdogan's obstruction of Sweden, which required unanimous approval from NATO members in order to complete its entry bid into the alliance, launched, along with Finland, in response to the Russian invasion of Ukraine last year.
Biden spoke with Erdogan from Air Force One for nearly an hour on Sunday in a bid to break the impasse and avoid an embarrassing failure at the Vilnius summit. Erdogan abruptly dropped his opposition late Monday on the eve of the NATO get-together.
For months, Erdogan insisted on a crackdown in Sweden against members of Kurdish movements outlawed in The Sick Man of Europe Turkey
...the occupiers of Greek Asia Minor...
, something the Swedish government says it has now done.
But speculation mounted over what other concessions Turkey extracted to give its green light.
Erdogan had demanded at the last minute that approval for Sweden in NATO would depend on Turkey being able to renew stalled membership talks with the European Union
...the successor to the Holy Roman Empire, only without the Hapsburgs and the nifty uniforms and the dancing...
Another long-standing demand from Turkey for the purchase of modern US F-16 fighter jets seemed to get a boost in the wake of the decision on Sweden.
Biden's national security advisor, Jake Sullivan, stressed Tuesday that the US president has "been clear and unequivocal for months that he's supported the transfer of F-16s," seeing this as in the interests of NATO.
"He has placed no caveats or conditions on that in his public and private comments over the past few months. And he intends to move forward with that transfer in consultation with Congress."
A US official told AFP that the White House is now "actively engaging" with Congress, where there has been significant opposition to allowing the sale.
Sullivan said "we will work with the Congress on the appropriate timing for getting" the warplanes to Turkey. But he could not "speculate on the precise day it's going to happen."
Although NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg and Sweden's Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson were heavily engaged in the negotiations with Erdogan, Sullivan stressed "significant recent" US involvement.
As for the effort by Erdogan to link Turkey's EU aspirations with the Swedish-NATO question, Sullivan said Biden has "long" supported Turkey entering the European Union.
However,
there's more than one way to skin a cat...
that would take "discussions of the necessary reforms and steps relative to democratic resilience that every prospective applicant to the European Union goes through."
"So, as far as we're concerned, these issues are not connected," he said.
Hours after The Sick Man of Europe Turkey
...the only place on the face of the earth that misses the Ottoman Empire...
agreed to forward to parliament Sweden’s bid to become a NATO
...the North Atlantic Treaty Organization. Originally it was a mutual defense pact directed against an expansionist Soviet Union. In later years it evolved into a mechanism for picking the American pocket while criticizing the cut of the American pants...
member, US Senate Foreign Relations Committee Chairman Bob Menendez said he was in talks with the US President Joe The Big Guy Biden
 ...46th president of the U.S. S I'm not working for you. Don't be such a horse's ass. ...
over the US F-16 sales to Turkey.
Menendez, in a brief hallway interview, said that since there was a temporary "lull" in Turkey’s "aggression against its neighbors," he could make a decision about the F-16 sales though he still has concerns about Turkey.
In April, Menendez showed his opposition to the sale of F-16 fighters to Turkey, saying "Turkey has not done enough to be rewarded in this way."
The Biden administration, in January this year, informally notified the Congress of its intention to sell 40 new F-16 fighter jets to Turkey, along with 80 upgrade kits to modernize the Ottoman Turkish Air Force’s existing F-16 fleet.
In February, 29 senators informed US President Joe Biden in a letter that Congress will not support the F-16 sale if Turkey does not stop blocking Sweden and Finland’s entry into NATO.
In April, a $259 million package including avionics software upgrades for Turkey’s current fleet of F-16 fighter aircraft was approved by the US Congress, days after Turkey ratified Finland’s NATO accession and it appeared like it was easing tension with its neighbor Greece, ahead of the Ottoman Turkish elections.
Menendez added in case the US administration could insure that Turkey’s aggression against its neighbors is ceased, "that’s great but there has to be a permanent reality."
He added that there needed to be a way to "beef up Greece’s security" and obtain "assurances about future actions."
Turkey and Greece have been at odds for decades over a number of bilateral disputes, including maritime boundaries in the Mediterranean, overlapping claims to their continental shelves, and the long-running Cyprus dispute.
Since 1974 relations between the two countries have remained tense in the follow of invasion by Ankara of Northern Cyprus which fell to the Ottoman Turkish control. In 2020 tensions went high again after Ankara discovered gas fields off Cyprus. Since then, the Ottoman Turkish President has regularly threatened Greece.
The other dispute began in September 2022, when Turkey accused Greece of obstructing Ottoman Turkish fighter jet from the S-300 air defense system, which is stationed on the island of Crete.
In case of any decision regarding the sales to be taken, Menendez stressed it will be "in the next week."
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Posted by trailing wife 2023-07-12 01:19||
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File under: Sublime Porte
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Posted by Skidmark 2023-07-12 08:48||
2023-07-12 08:48||
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Posted by Super Hose 2023-07-12 12:35||
2023-07-12 12:35||
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Posted by Punky Protector of the Jutes1381 2023-07-12 15:59||
2023-07-12 15:59||
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00:50 DarthVader
00:01 Skidmark
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