McConnell Supports Blocking Turkey F16s Until Sweden NATO Bid Greenlit

Punchbowl News reports that Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) supports a move to block the sale of F16 fighter jets to Turkey, “until Ankara ends its blockade of Sweden’s NATO accession.”

• McConnell said: “I’m one of those who are not in favor of the F-16 sale to Turkey until the admission of Sweden gets behind us. We had anticipated that would happen in Vilnius.”
• McConnell's statement lends significant weight to Senate Foreign Relations Committee efforts to convince the Biden administration to leverage the F16 deal to convince Ankara to approve Sweden's entry to NATO before next week's summit.
• President Biden told Swedish Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson at the White House yesterday that the US, "...fully, fully, fully supports Sweden’s membership in NATO… And I’m anxiously looking forward for your membership.”
• Senior officials from Turkey, Sweden, and Finland are scheduled to meet with NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg in Brussels today in bid to ameliorate Turkish security concerns.
• Punchbowl notes that a "half-dozen" US senators attend the NATO summit with "expansion of the alliance and continuing support for Ukraine [a]top the agenda.”