Although the deadline for the US Congress' decision to approve the deal on the sale of Israeli F-16 jets to Croatia expires on Wednesday, the Croatian Defence Ministry said the procedure was still underway.

In mid-December, the US State Department had formally notified the US Congress of the arms transfer case involving Israel’s sale of F-16 jets to Croatia. The US Congress was asked for the approval of the so-called Third Party Transfer (TPT) which regulates any re-sale of American-made arms to allow the delivery of twelve Israeli F-16 C/D aircraft bought by Croatia in a 3.1 billion kuna ($477 million) deal in March.

The Congress had 15 days to approve the deal.

However, in its statement to N1 in mid-December, the US embassy to Croatia said that “certain details are pending” and said that the State Department “would like to see cooperation from all parties involved to come to a successful resolution.”

“The United States gives the approval to Israel, and that document is between those two countries. The procedure is underway,” the Croatian Defence Ministry said on Wednesday.

According to TPT rules, any American-made military equipment originally purchased by an ally country must be returned to its original state before being transferred to a third party for the sale to be approved by the US.

“The only thing Croatia is interested in is to get the type of airplanes which were specified in the offer (made by Israel),” the Ministry added on Wednesday.

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