New US Senate foreign relations chair will look at Turkish F-16 deal

The Senate Foreign Relations Committee’s new chairman on Thursday said he would look at Turkey’s $20 billion Lockheed Martin F-16 fighter jet deal and that more issues than Sweden’s ascension to NATO would affect the decision on lifting his predecessor’s longstanding hold.

“I need to talk to the administration on a lot of these issues, because it’s beyond just one issue involved, and I need to understand that,” Senator Ben Cardin, a Democrat, told reporters, one day after he took over leadership of the influential panel.