Turkey’s hopes of overcoming congressional hurdles and acquiring F-16 fighter jets and upgrade kits rose this week when the Senate removed two amendments to a bill designed to prevent their sales from the 2023 National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA). Turkish presidential adviser Ibrahim Kalin told reporters in the Kazakh capital Astana Wednesday that the move was a “positive step,” adding that “pressure from the Greek lobby” to hinder the deal had been beaten back. However, Turkey’s relief proved to be premature.

“Not so fast” was the message from Bob Menendez, chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, who co-authored the amendments along with fellow Democratic Senator Chris Van Hollen of Maryland. “Let me be clear,” Menendez tweeted. “I will not approve any F-16 case for Turkey until [Turkish President Recep Tayyip] Erdogan halts his campaign of aggression against the region. Full stop.”

A Turkish diplomatic source speaking not for attribution, however, aired confidence that the dropping of the amendments signaled that the sales would proceed. The first amendment required that the American president certify that the sale would be in the “national interest" of the United States. The second stipulated that “concrete steps” be taken to ensure that the F-16s were not used by Turkey for “repeated unauthorized territorial overflights of Greece.” The diplomatic source claimed that the fact that neither senator pushed back against their removal was proof they no longer opposed the sale. The source said he remained bullish even after Menendez’s tweets. “We need to assess why the amendments were dropped,” the source told Al-Monitor.

“The technical talks between our two governments are likely to be completed by the end of November,” the source said. The administration is then expected to formally notify Congress of its decision to proceed with the sales and, should there be no objections from Congress, the “process will be completed,” the source asserted.