US senators declined on Thursday to block the sale of F-16s to Turkey, despite voicing deep disdain for Ankara's conduct as an ally.
They were upholding an unofficial bargain that Turkey would get the fighter jets if it stopped blocking Sweden's accession to Nato.
“A deal's a deal,” said Idaho's Jim Risch, the ranking Republican on the Senate foreign relations committee.
Kentucky Republican Rand Paul, who introduced the resolution to try to block the sale, told fellow senators: “Call it quid pro quo. That sounds better than extortion.”
The Senate voted 13 to 79 to reject Mr Paul's proposal.
Along with the Democratic committee chairman, Ben Cardin of Maryland, Mr Risch took the Senate floor before the vote to acknowledge some of the many US objections to Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan's government.
They include its attacks on America's Kurdish allies in Syria, its backing for offensives by Azerbaijan on the ethnic Armenian enclave of Nagorno-Karabakh, and Turkey's deal with Russia to buy its S400 missile defence system and other matters.
But the Republican and Democratic senior foreign policy leaders said adding Sweden to Nato was too important to the overall strategic interests of the western military alliance.
Sweden, along with Finland, sought to join Nato after Russia's 2022 invasion of Ukraine.
The US and the majority of other Nato allies supported the accession, saying the two countries' militaries, industries and locations near or bordering Russia would strengthen the alliance.
Finland joined Nato last year after Mr Erdogan lifted initial objections to that country as well.
His objections to Sweden included it offering refuge to Turkish critics in exile.
But he also publicly linked his objections to hopes of overcoming US reluctance to sell Turkey new models of the advanced fighter jet.
“I’m not here to defend Turkey or the other things that they do,” Mr Risch said. “What I am here to do is defend the importance of Nato.”
Mr Paul said before the vote that continuing to withhold the advanced fighter jets was the best thing the US had to influence Turkey's behaviour as an ally.
“What will Turkey do next time they want something?” he asked.
The State Department notified Congress of its approval of the $23 billion F-16 sale to Turkey in January, along with a companion $8.6 billion sale of advanced F-35 fighter jets to Greece.
The State Department agreement came hours after Turkey deposited its “instrument of ratification” for Sweden’s accession to Nato with Washington, which is the repository for alliance documents, and after several key members of Congress lifted their objections.
US unveils B-21 'Raider', the next-generation stealth bomber – video
Tearful appearance
Chancellor Rachel Reeves set markets on edge as she appeared visibly distraught in parliament on Wednesday.
Legislative setbacks for the government have blown a new hole in the budgetary calculations at a time when the deficit is stubbornly large and the economy is struggling to grow.
She appeared with Keir Starmer on Thursday and the pair embraced, but he had failed to give her his backing as she cried a day earlier.
A spokesman said her upset demeanour was due to a personal matter.
LILO & STITCH
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Paris Can Wait
Dir: Eleanor Coppola
Starring: Alec Baldwin, Diane Lane, Arnaud Viard
Two stars
HIJRA
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Uefa Nations League: How it works
The Uefa Nations League, introduced last year, has reached its final stage, to be played over five days in northern Portugal. The format of its closing tournament is compact, spread over two semi-finals, with the first, Portugal versus Switzerland in Porto on Wednesday evening, and the second, England against the Netherlands, in Guimaraes, on Thursday.
The winners of each semi will then meet at Porto’s Dragao stadium on Sunday, with the losing semi-finalists contesting a third-place play-off in Guimaraes earlier that day.
Qualifying for the final stage was via League A of the inaugural Nations League, in which the top 12 European countries according to Uefa's co-efficient seeding system were divided into four groups, the teams playing each other twice between September and November. Portugal, who finished above Italy and Poland, successfully bid to host the finals.
Common OCD symptoms and how they manifest
Checking: the obsession or thoughts focus on some harm coming from things not being as they should, which usually centre around the theme of safety. For example, the obsession is “the building will burn down”, therefore the compulsion is checking that the oven is switched off.
Contamination: the obsession is focused on the presence of germs, dirt or harmful bacteria and how this will impact the person and/or their loved ones. For example, the obsession is “the floor is dirty; me and my family will get sick and die”, the compulsion is repetitive cleaning.
Orderliness: the obsession is a fear of sitting with uncomfortable feelings, or to prevent harm coming to oneself or others. Objectively there appears to be no logical link between the obsession and compulsion. For example,” I won’t feel right if the jars aren’t lined up” or “harm will come to my family if I don’t line up all the jars”, so the compulsion is therefore lining up the jars.
Intrusive thoughts: the intrusive thought is usually highly distressing and repetitive. Common examples may include thoughts of perpetrating violence towards others, harming others, or questions over one’s character or deeds, usually in conflict with the person’s true values. An example would be: “I think I might hurt my family”, which in turn leads to the compulsion of avoiding social gatherings.
Hoarding: the intrusive thought is the overvaluing of objects or possessions, while the compulsion is stashing or hoarding these items and refusing to let them go. For example, “this newspaper may come in useful one day”, therefore, the compulsion is hoarding newspapers instead of discarding them the next day.
Source: Dr Robert Chandler, clinical psychologist at Lighthouse Arabia
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