Washington
\nUS Secretary of Defence Pete Hegseth cancelled a meeting that had been scheduled for \u200bWednesday to discuss the possible sale of F-35 fighter jets to Turkey \u200cwith Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, an Israeli source told Reuters.
\nAny such sale would likely anger Israeli officials. The source, who spoke on condition of anonymity due to the sensitivity of the \u200bmatter, said Hegseth had also been scheduled to meet Israeli Defence Minister \u200bIsrael Katz on a trip to Israel and that Iran would feature in their discussions.
\nUS President Donald Trump said on Wednesday that the memorandum of \u200bunderstanding signed to end the conflict that the US and Israel launched against Iran \u200bwas \u201cover\u201d and that he didn\u2019t want to engage with Tehran.
\nThe US embassy in Israel had no immediate comment on Hegseth\u2019s planned meetings.
\nTurkey, a NATO member, has long criticised Israeli operations in Gaza, \u200bLebanon and Syria, and it has repeatedly accused Israel of trying to undermine the US-Iran \u200bceasefire deal mediated by Pakistan.
\nIn an interview with CNN on Tuesday, Netanyahu said he opposed the \u200csale of F-35s to Turkey, and that he had made his opposition clear to Trump.
\n\u201cIt would destroy the power balance in the Middle East because Turkey has aggressive aspirations,\u201d Netanyahu told CNN.
\nTrump, who is attending a NATO summit in Turkey along with Hegseth, announced \u200bon Tuesday he \u200bwould lift US sanctions imposed on Ankara over its 2019 purchase of Russian air defence missiles, and he signalled a willingness to sell the NATO \u200bally F-35 fighter jets, a move likely to face strong resistance \u200bin Congress as well as in Israel.
\nBilateral relations had deteriorated sharply over Turkey\u2019s acquisition of the Russian S-400 system, which prompted the US to impose sanctions on a major Turkish defence company \u200band remove Ankara from the F-35 stealth fighter \u200bjet program.
\nTies have improved markedly since Trump\u2019s return to the White House in January 2025, but the jet \u200bsales remain blocked under US law.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Washington US Secretary of Defence Pete Hegseth cancelled a meeting that had been scheduled for \u200bWednesday to discuss the possible sale of F-35 fighter jets to Turkey \u200cwith Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, an Israeli source told Reuters. Any such sale would likely anger Israeli officials. The source, who spoke on condition of anonymity due […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-555337","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","category-world"],"yoast_head":"\n