US President Donald Trump is expected to tell President Recep Tayyip Erdogan of Turkey that he is prepared to restore the country to a program that would allow it to purchase American F-35 stealth fighter jets, sources said, The New York Times reports.

It remains unclear, however, exactly how Trump intends to implement this decision and bypass the Congressional ban on the supply of F-35s to Turkey.

Anonymous members of the US administration have suggested that the leaders may exchange official letters to begin the process of returning Turkey to the F-35 program.

The US president on Tuesday will leave for Turkey, where he will participate in the NATO summit in Ankara.

American officials, however, have not ruled out that Trump may still change his mind. In late June, the Brussels-based Euractiv portal reported that the US may return to the idea of ​​selling F-35 aircraft to Turkey if the latter gives up its Russian-made S-400 air defense systems, but does not return them to Russia and sells them to a third country.

The US excluded Turkey from its F-35 program in 2019 due to Ankara’s purchase of Russian S-400 air defense systems. The United States justified its decision by concerns that Turkey would be able to gather information about the F-35s’ vulnerability to the S-400 complex by operating both systems in its armed forces.

Israel, whose relations with Ankara are deteriorating, and Turkey’s NATO ally Greece, which is also a historical adversary of Ankara, are also actively opposing the transfer of F-35s to Turkey. Greece and Israel argue that the transfer of F-35s to Turkey would upset the regional balance of power.