The US plan to sell Türkiye F-35 stealth fighter jets has stalled, blocked by a Russian missile system Ankara bought years ago, Semafor reported. Lawmakers in Washington won't clear the deal while Türkiye keeps the hardware. The lone buyer in talks hasn't budged, and destroying the system is now on the table.

Russia has long used arms exports to pull buyers into its orbit, and the war it started raised the price of those ties—leaving governments that bought Russian air defense to clash with the supplier that sold it.

The Russian system is in the way

US sanctions law bars Türkiye from the F-35 program while it retains the Russian S-400, Semafor reported. That system is a long-range air defense, built to shoot down planes and missiles. Ankara already paid for six of the jets. They have sat in the United States since Washington expelled Türkiye from the F-35 program in 2019. US President Donald Trump announced plans to sell the jets more than a month ago, and nothing has moved since.

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No buyer, no easy exit

One way out is to sell the S-400 to another country. Türkiye reportedly opened talks with the United Arab Emirates (UAE) last month, but they don't appear to have progressed. American lawmakers insist Ankara must give up the system entirely first.

Republican Senator Rick Scott told Semafor that Türkiye shouldn't get the jets unless it becomes a true partner—"so if they have the S-400, they cannot have the F-35." Senate Foreign Relations Committee Chairman Jim Risch, a longtime opponent, said the process is "at a standstill."

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Israel and Congress are the live block

The sharper obstacle sits in Washington, Semafor reported. A vote to sell would pit Israel against a NATO ally, and many of Trump's own allies want the S-400 scrapped completely. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu warned the jets could "destroy the power balance in the Middle East." The outlet said AIPAC, the leading pro-Israel lobby in Washington, is pressing Congress to keep the block.

Selling it still runs through Moscow

Any resale carries its own catch: Russia must approve the transfer of the S-400, giving the Kremlin a reason to block it. The only option that bypasses Moscow is to disable or destroy the system outright. Türkiye earlier tried to return the systems to Moscow, hoping to thaw relations with Washington. It didn't work.

The Trump administration says Ankara hasn't met all the conditions to buy the jets, and the State Department wants the S-400 issue settled with guarantees first.

Human Rights Watch is asking the US Congress to block Türkiye from transferring tens of thousands of decades-old cluster munitions to Ukraine. The State Department had earlier told Congress it is prepared to authorize the deal, which Ukraine wants to strengthen its firepower against the Russian invasion. 

What Türkiye wants to send

Türkiye has requested US permission to retransfer to Ukraine tens of thousands of cluster munition rockets, missiles, and artillery shells held in its stockpiles for decades. The package covers Türkiye's entire inventory of 12 M270 rocket launchers and three types of cluster munitions: 70 M39 ATACMS ballistic missiles, 2,524 M26 rockets, and 47,000 M509A1 203mm artillery shells, according to the State Department transmittal sheets.

The deal is valued at $256 million. Together, the rounds hold more than 10 million explosive bomblets, Human Rights Watch said, produced in part by Türkiye under US licenses first issued in 1987. The US removed the M509A1 shells from service in 1994, when the howitzers that fired them retired, according to HRW.

Cluster munitions scatter small bomblets across a wide area, and some fail to explode on impact, leaving hazards that can maim civilians long after fighting ends.

Ukraine, for its part, gave Washington written assurances not to fire earlier US-supplied cluster rounds in civilian-populated urban areas, and US officials said Kyiv had kept to its use constraints.

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What Washington says

A senior State Department official notified Congress that it is prepared to authorize the transfer, in documents printed in the Congressional Record on 6 August. Türkiye wants to shed older stock and focus its money on modern systems, the official said. Ukraine wants the munitions to bolster its fire support as it resists the invasion, the official added, noting that Ukraine already fields the same or nearly identical rounds. Congress can review the deal and pass a resolution of disapproval to block it.

Human Rights Watch argues the age and unreliability of the weapons make them a foreseeable hazard to civilians. Human Rights Watch deputy Washington director Nicole Widdersheim said the more-than-30-year-old munitions are inaccurate and prone to failure, and that their impact on civilians drove 112 countries to ban the weapon under the Convention on Cluster Munitions.

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The same group has documented Russia's cluster attacks since 2022

Human Rights Watch opposes the weapon for all sides and has tracked Russia's use of it throughout the war. It documented repeated Russian cluster strikes since 2022, called a Russian attack on Lyman a possible war crime, and logged further strikes on civilians in its World Report chapters on Ukraine.

In each case, the group called on Russia to stop firing the weapon. On the Türkiye deal, it is asking Congress for something more concrete — to kill the transfer before the munitions reach Ukraine.