House Foreign Affairs chief says he signed off to F-35 sale to Greece
The chair of the bipartisan US House Foreign Affairs Committee, Michael McCaul, revealed on Wednesday that he had given the green light for the sale of F-35 fighter jets to Greece “because it deserves it.”
The United States and Turkey have sparred in recent years over the latter’s decision to buy and install Russia’s advanced S-400 air-defense missile system. Ankara also wants to buy 100 of Lockheed Martin Corp.’s latest generation stealth jet fighters. But US officials have told Turkey that the S-400 is designed to detect and shoot down stealth fighters and called on the country to send those systems to Ukraine.
McCaul said Ankara has told the US that the missile system is “still in the box.”
“I say, well, send the box to Ukraine and then we’ll talk. That’s a lie, it’s not in a box and we all know this. And that’s why I signed off on the F-35 sales to Greece, because Greece deserves it,” the Republican lawmaker from Texas told attendees at the 38th Annual PSEKA Cyprus Conference in Washington, DC.
Organized by PSEKA (The International Coordinating Committee – Justice for Cyprus), the conference aims to engage congressional leaders and raise awareness about the situation in Cyprus by bringing together top policymakers involved in formulating policies towards Cyprus, Turkey, and Greece.
