Congressman John Sarbanis has confirmed that the State Department has given the assurances requested by Congress regarding Greek security in the Aegean and the sale of F-16s to Turkey.

It is recalled that under the agreement reached in Vilnius, known as the “Menendez package”, lawmakers would receive a letter guaranteeing that the State Department would take action in the event that Turkey uses the new fighters to violate the sovereignty of another NATO ally.

Speaking about this letter to the OPEN television station, the Democratic congressman confirmed that there are a number of contacts and assurances given by the State Department to the chairmen of the committees with the jurisdiction to approve such a sale.

If there were no such assurances, the aforesaid would not have approved the sale of the F-16s and would not have publicly shown feeling comfortable with it, the Congressman noted.

As to whether the Blinken letter really constitutes a safety net for Greece, Congressman Sarbanis estimated that if Turkey returns to its prior stance, the State Department will exert strong pressure throughout the development of the F-16 program.

Also read: State Department | “Green light” on the sale of a security package for the Turkish F-16s

As he explained, if there is any challenge, if the F-16s are being used in a way that would be against the expectations of all parties, then obviously there would be some re-evaluation in terms of the delivery, the delivery time, and so on.

John Sarbanes said that he was a little taken aback by the statement of the Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs, Victoria Nuland, who speaking to CNN Turk said that the US would be happy to bring Turkey back into the F-35 program if the S-400 issue is resolved.

The US Congressman estimated that it is too early to initiate such a dialogue, emphasizing that it is premature to do so.

The representative of the Security Council, John Kirby, followed the same path a little later, who noted that for the time being there is no change in this matter.

Also read: USA | Request for Turkish F-16s oversight mechanism