President Trump told reporters at the NATO summit in Ankara on Tuesday that the United States would "certainly consider" reversing Turkey's exclusion from the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter program, adding that Turkey had been "much more loyal" than some partners and calling the aircraft "the best plane" [1]. He also announced he would lift CAATSA sanctions that Congress imposed on Turkey after Ankara purchased the Russian S-400 air defense system in 2019.

The legal situation does not turn on what Trump is willing to consider. It turns on a statute.

Congress codified Turkey's exclusion from the F-35 program in Section 1243 of the 2020 National Defense Authorization Act [2]. The prohibition bars transfer of fifth-generation aircraft to Turkey until the administration can certify to Congress that Turkey "no longer possesses" the S-400 system, its materials, and any associated personnel functions. No agreement on divesting or transferring the S-400 to a third country has been announced. Turkey still possesses the S-400. The certification required by the statute cannot currently be truthfully made.

Turkey accepted S-400 delivery in 2019. Washington removed Ankara from the Joint Strike Fighter program that year. Congress codified the ban in the NDAA the following year, converting an executive-branch policy decision into statutory law — which is a meaningful difference. A president can reverse an executive-branch policy decision by executive order. A statutory prohibition requires congressional action to modify [1].

The possible legal path involves a third-country S-400 transfer that Turkey has been discussing without agreement. If Ankara were to transfer the system to a country acceptable to Congress and the administration, and if the administration were then to certify that Turkey no longer possesses the system, the statutory barrier would be resolved. That sequence has not happened. The discussion of the sequence is not the sequence [3].

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu publicly opposed the transfer through a statement that reached the American press, arguing it would affect Israel's qualitative military edge in the Middle East [3]. Senator Lindsey Graham expressed support for finding a solution while acknowledging substantial resistance on Capitol Hill. The congressional arithmetic has not changed since Trump's statement.

The paper's frame: "will consider" is negotiating language deployed against a legislative prohibition. The executive can express a preference; it cannot override a statute by preference. The next documented step in this story is either a formal S-400 transfer agreement or a legislative modification of the NDAA. Neither exists in the public record as of Tuesday evening.

-- YOSEF STERN, Jerusalem