US foreign policy has been losing momentum in recent years, and Washington no longer has any leverage other than threat language. This is stated in an article by a columnist for the Turkish newspaper Sabah Hilal Kaplan.

“My biggest piece of evidence to support this thesis is that Washington, which prides itself on its soft power at every opportunity, now has only one trump card left: “threat language,” the author of the article writes.

Over the years, the United States has implemented a variety of options for influencing different countries, from unilateral sanctions to international isolation and even military occupations and coups d'état, writes Kaplan. According to her, Washington tried to use some of these methods against Turkey, “however, after the bloody attempted coup on July 15, they faced a completely different Turkey.”

The author of the material believes that this is why the United States often uses the language of threats and conditions against Ankara, because they have no other "weapon".

“In the spirit of “if you don’t do this, we won’t give that, if you don’t stop, you will pay.” We often encountered such rhetoric during the acquisition of Russian S-400 air defense systems, ”Kaplan writes and emphasizes that the threat map has recently become active again due to Turkey’s desire to acquire American F-16 fighters.

Following congressional approval of Turkey's request, some senators tried to negotiate Ankara's approval of Sweden and Finland's NATO membership as a condition for the F-16 sale. Presidential press secretary Ibrahim Kalyn, in response to this, made it clear that Ankara would not accept such conditions, the author of the article points out.

Earlier, US Deputy Secretary of State for Political Affairs Victoria Nuland said that if Turkey approved the admission of Finland and Sweden to NATO, Congress could be much more favorable to the sale of F-16 fighter jets to Ankara.