Tens of millions attended the Ayatollah's funeral as Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu sought a sit-down with Trump.
On Friday, Netanyahu complained to President Trump about Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan's escalating anti-Israel rhetoric and asked the president to refrain from selling weapons systems that would help Turkey modernize its air force, Israeli and U.S. officials said.
Trump is traveling Monday to meet Erdoğan and participate in the NATO leaders summit in Ankara.
On the agenda for the trip is a $700 million deal for new engines for Turkey's fighter jets and the possibility of NATO's second largest military re-entering the F-35 program.
Turkey was expelled from the F-35 program in 2019 after it purchased Russia's S-400 air defense system, and Vice President Vance said last week that the Pentagon is conducting a review to determine how the U.S. could sell F-35s to Turkey despite its possession of the Russian-made missile defense system. "There are certain things that we have to certify ... in order to comply with American law. The president has asked us to do that," Vance said.
Last week, Erdoğan called Zionism "a genocidal ideology," and Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan in a TV interview called the Israeli government "a burden that humanity can no longer bear" while urging international sanctions on Israel.
Netanyahu made a similar case publicly Monday in an interview on "Fox & Friends," saying, "For a regime infected by the Muslim Brotherhood, an extreme movement that hates America ... I don't think they should be given F-35s or the engines for their fighter jets because that will upset the power balance in the Middle East, which is guaranteed by Israeli air superiority and by America's posture." Netanyahu is expected to visit the White House later this month. Numerous U.S. officials, including Vance, have accused Netanyahu of making rosy predictions about the Iran war that didn't pan out, and "Bibi made a bunch of promises about the Iran war that didn't come to pass," a senior administration official said.
"Netanyahu made an ask and the president heard him. So the president might pass on [to Erdoğan] the message like, 'Hey, can you just go a little easy on this.' But it is what it is," a U.S. official said. The Israeli Prime Minister's Office and the White House declined to comment.