Donald Trump said he will lift US sanctions on Turkey and will soon decide whether to allow the sale of F-35 fighter jets to Ankara, speaking alongside President Recep Tayyip Erdogan on the sidelines of the NATO leaders' summit in Ankara on July 7, 2026. "We're going to be taking the sanctions off," Trump told reporters, adding that a determination on the F-35 sale is "certainly something we will consider" Al Jazeera.

The sanctions date to 2019, when Turkey acquired the Russian S-400 air defence system. The US responded by expelling Turkey from the F-35 programme and imposing CAATSA sanctions — a law designed to punish countries that buy from America's adversaries. These sanctions restricted Turkey's Presidency of Defence Industries from exporting to the US and froze certain banking transactions Al Jazeera. A 2020 law added an extra requirement for readmission to the F-35 programme: the sitting US administration must formally confirm that Turkey no longer possesses or operates the S-400 batteries.

That legal requirement is the crux of what remains unresolved. Lifting the CAATSA sanctions and clearing Turkey for F-35 purchases are governed by separate legal tests. Trump's remarks in Ankara addressed sanctions relief more directly than the jet sale, which he framed as a pending decision.

Erdogan told reporters he hoped for a "favourable decision" on the F-35s and noted that Turkey had been promised five of the jets before its removal from the programme in 2019, with payments already made Al Jazeera.

The meeting took place during the 2026 NATO Summit, hosted in Ankara. NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte held a pre-summit press conference in the city on July 6 NATO. Hosting the summit signals Turkey's continued standing within the alliance despite years of tension with Washington over the S-400 purchase, its Syria policy, and disputes with fellow NATO member Greece.

Reaction has split along predictable lines. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, speaking to Fox News on July 6, said selling F-35s to Turkey would "upset the power balance in the Middle East" and argued that Israeli air superiority must be preserved Al Jazeera. Israel has operated F-35s since 2016 and views the platform's regional exclusivity as central to its qualitative military edge doctrine — a principle written into US law governing Middle East arms sales.

On Capitol Hill, the reception was more measured. Republican Senator Lindsey Graham, speaking to Turkiye Today on July 7, said he was open to F-35 sales to Ankara: "There might be some pushback in Congress, but a solution might be found" Al Jazeera. Graham's framing suggests any formal congressional notification would face scrutiny but not necessarily derail the sale.

The bigger picture: Trump appears to be separating these two decisions as distinct tracks rather than linking them as a single package. CAATSA relief does not satisfy the 2020 statutory requirement tied to the S-400 systems. That requirement asks whether Turkey still possesses or operates the Russian batteries — a question Turkey has sidestepped without confirming decommissioning or removal. Trump's language in Ankara, firm on sanctions and conditional on the jets, suggests an administration delivering an immediate win to Erdogan while keeping the harder legal and diplomatic question in abeyance.

The regional implications run deep. Turkey operates one of NATO's largest air forces and has pursued its own indigenous fighter program, the KAAN, partly as insurance against continued F-35 exclusion. A reversal would restore a NATO ally's access to fifth-generation airpower at a moment when the alliance is recalibrating force posture along its eastern and southern flanks. It would also test whether Washington's legal commitment to preserve Israeli military superiority can accommodate a broader distribution of the F-35 among regional partners — a tension likely to surface in congressional hearings and Israeli-American security talks in the weeks ahead.

No timeline was given in Ankara for the formal S-400 determination or sanctions relief. Both would require action from the Treasury and State Departments. Any F-35 sale would need to clear congressional notification requirements under the Arms Export Control Act.