Israel Embassy says it was 'hacked' after Instagram post mocking Turkey's F-35 woes

The post included a photo from the recent meeting of the presidents Turkey and the US.

Israel's embassy to Turkey on late Tuesday (November 2) posted an Instagram story mocking Ankara's negotiations with the US about its removal from the F-35 fighter jet program.

The embassy shared a post by Zaytung, a satirical website in Turkey, which said, "F-35 negotiations coming to an end: The Foreign Ministry is pushing for 1.4 billion dollars worth of iPhone 13s and AirPods."

Deleting the post after about half an hour, the embassy released a statement on its social media accounts, saying that it was targeted in a cyber attack. It expressed its sadness due to an "inappropriate post."

Turkey was officially kicked out of the F-35 program in July shortly after it procured S-400 surface-to-air missile systems from Russia in July 2019. The US didn't deliver the planes Turkey had already paid for, as well as sanctioning Turkey's arms purchasing agency.

The defense ministries of the two countries have been in talks for months with Ankara trying to persuade Washington to have both the planes and missiles.

President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan recently said that "We'll get our money back in one way or another." He also reportedly discussed the issue with his US counterpart Joe Biden during their meeting on the sidelines of the G-20 summit last week.

Ankara has demanded Patriot missile systems and F-16 fighter jets instead of the F-35s but hasn't got a positive answer so far. (VK)