ATHENS – Greece’s major opposition SYRIZA warned that Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s tough talk after the US State Department approved his request for more F-16 fighter jets showed he’s still a risk to Greece.

The US Congress must give its okay before the deal is finalized, the agreement being US President Joe Biden’s quid pro quo for Erdogan approved Sweden’s entry into NATO, which he used as a bargaining chip to get the fighter jets.

SYRIZA referred to what it called “aggressive statements” by Erdogan who responded to the sale agreement by saying that, “The  struggle does not end by throwing the enemy into the sea.”

SYRIZA said this showed that Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis made a diplomatic blunder in signing the non-binding Athens Declaration with Erdogan to ease tensions and not object to Turkey getting more F-16s that could be used against Greece in a conflict.

The US said it would sell Greece up to 40 more advanced F-35 fighters that give superiority over the F-16s but those will take several years for delivery and Erdogan only backed off sending Turkish jets into Greek airspace ahead of the talks with Mitsotakis and renewing a push for European Union entry hopes.

SYRIZA, under new leader Stefanos Kasselakis, said that without a national strategy to push Turkey to recognize international laws – especially over the seas which it rejects – that Erdogan could return to his previous belligerency.

The Leftists said that Greece – as the Hellenic Caucus in the US Congress and other American lawmakers have said – should insist on conditions over selling Turkey more F-16s to bar them from being used against Greece, which Erdogah has refused outright.

The F-35s for Greece and F-16s for Turkey, which also wants the US to upgrade its Air Force, is seen as the US trying to keep relations with both countries, which are fellow NATO allies.