Trump remarks on Netanyahu before meeting

TT 

Published 22:34

  

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu visited Trump at Mar-a-Lago in Florida last December but has not visited the White House since the start of the Iran war. Photo: Alex Brandon/AP/TT

US President Donald Trump says that "nobody is dictating" his decision regarding the sale of the F-35 fighter jet to Turkey.

Aboard the presidential plane Air Force One, Trump commented on Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's objection to selling the American F-35 planes to Turkey:

- Nobody tells me what we should sell, Trump said on Monday.

He added that "Turkey is not a big fan of Israel", and that Turkey is a "fantastic ally". The remark comes barely a day before Netanyahu's meeting with Trump at the White House on Tuesday.

Netanyahu has long warned the US against a sale.

"He (Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan) is threatening to destroy my country, the only Jewish state," Netanyahu said in an interview with CNN earlier in July.