US Senator Chris Van Hollen, a member of the United States Senate Committee on Foreign Relations, called on a State Department official to get assurances from Turkey that it will not use the F-16 fighter jets it seeks to upgrade to violate Greece’s or Cyprus’ airspace.

“It seems to me there are only two ways to get at them. One is for the US government to get assurances from Turkey that it will not use these F-16s in violation of the airspace of Greece or any other NATO ally and that they will not use them to attack our Syrian/Kurdish partners. Would you agree these are reasonable requests to make [of them]?” Van Hollen asked James O’Brien, head of the State Department’s Office of Sanctions Coordination, at a hearing over his candidacy to be an Assistant Secretary of State on European and Eurasian Affairs.

“I think Senator the clarity of views coming from the Congress has been very helpful as we navigate these issues with our Turkish allies. So I think if we can continue our communication on this we can make sure that the points are raised,” O’Brien responded.

Van Hollen said “the second way” is for the Biden administration to give embers of Congress that “if Turkey were to violate these conditions there would be consequences.”