Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu expressed his displeasure to President Donald Trump about Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s anti-Israel rhetoric, Israel and U.S. officials told Axios.

Netanyahu also asked Trump to refrain from selling weapons systems that would help Turkey modernize its air force, Axios reported.

“Netanyahu made an ask and the president heard him,” a U.S. official said.

“So the president might pass on [to Erdogan] the message like, ‘Hey, can you just go a little easy on this.’ But it is what it is,” a U.S. official told Axios.

Erdogan recently called Zionism “a genocidal ideology” while Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan said in an interview that Israel’s government was “a burden that humanity can no longer bear.”

Trump is set to meet with Erdogan during a NATO Summit this week in Ankara.

The two are set to discuss a $700 million deal for new engines for Turkey’s fighter jets, and the possibility of Turkey re-entering the F-35 program, Axios reported.

Turkey was expelled from the F-35 program during the first Trump administration after it purchased Russia’s S-400 air defense system, according to Axios.

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Tagged: Middle East BACK TO HOMEPAGE