US envoy expects breakthrough on Turkey S-400 row, signals F-35 path

ANTALYA, Turkey - US Ambassador to Turkey Tom ​Barrack said on ‌Friday he expected Washington and Ankara to soon solve ​the issue of ​US sanctions over Turkey's ⁠purchase of Russian S-400 ​missile defences.

"I think you ​are going to see the S-400 situation solved soon. ​From my boss's point ​of view, acceptance into an ‌F-35 ⁠programme is fine," Barrack said at the Antalya Diplomacy Forum.

He noted that Greece already operates both S-300 air defense systems and F-35 aircraft.

He added that bilateral progress in the past 16 months has exceeded the previous 15 years combined, at the presidential, foreign minister, intelligence, military and business levels.

Barrack cited the Halkbank resolution as a concrete example: the bank had been sanctioned for a decade, "couldn't move" globally and was now resolved.

He also noted F-16 negotiations were back on track and said that cooperation over Syria had been "primarily beneficial to Turkey."

In 2020, the US sanctioned ⁠fellow NATO member Turkey over the purchase and removed ​it ⁠from a procurement and manufacturing programme for F-35 ⁠fighter ​jets.

Barrack also praised Turkey as "the only real economy in the middle of this complicated region."

"Turkey … is a real nation. People, resources, army. We talk about NATO, it is the second-largest supporter of NATO, but it's also one of our most relevant and important engines now when we go to this just-in-case philosophy," he said.

He added that just-in-time global logistics were giving way to just-in-case thinking, and that "everything, oil, gas, information, data, materials, flows through Turkey and Syria. Everything. Fiber optics. We're talking about Azerbaijan and Armenia and what could that passageway be."

On Israeli rhetoric suggesting Turkey could become the "new Iran," Barrack dismissed the framing and predicted the underlying dynamics would normalise.

"Turkey is not a country to be messed with," Barrack said.

"Before October 7th, we still had a trade surplus. They've been dealing with each other. They're still dealing with each other. It's rhetoric, horrible rhetoric, that we have to figure out a way to solve. I think this rhetoric is going to go away," he added.

He noted that in Istanbul and Tel Aviv, newspapers each portray the other country as pursuing expansionism, the "Ottoman Empire 2.0" versus "greater Israel," and said the strategic reality would force alignment.

"Israel aligned with Turkey, like Israel aligned with Abu Dhabi, like Saudi Arabia could be aligned with Israel. For the prosperity of the Israeli people, to me, that's the answer," he added.

Barrack also predicted a Syria-Israel normalisation agreement before a Lebanon deal and argued the Abraham Accords represent "the only answer" for regional stability.