CBS News
Turkey agrees to Sweden’s NATO bid
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has agreed to support Sweden’s bid to join NATO, the alliance’s secretary general Jens Stoltenberg said Monday.
Stoltenberg tweeted that Erdogan met with Swedish Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson and came to an agreement about Sweden’s membership in NATO, hours after Erdogan said the European Union should first consider his country’s admission to the EU.
In a news conference Monday, Stoltenberg said that Erdogan intends to submit the ratification documents to the Turkish parliament “as soon as possible,” but declined to offer “exact dates.”
He added, “And then of course it is for the parliament then to … have the process and then do the final ratification.”
Hungary, too, has opposed Sweden’s bid to join NATO, but Stoltenberg said that Hungary would not be “the last to ratify.” So, now that Turkey has agreed to Sweden’s accession, “I think that the problem will be solved,” he added.
President Biden, who has supported Sweden’s induction into NATO amid the Russian invasion of Ukriane, hailed the agreement.
NATO member countries are meeting this week in Vilnius, Lithuania.
Stoltenberg offered only a broad description of how Turkey had arrived at its decision to support Sweden’s accession.
“What we have seen is that we have been able to reconcile the concerns that Turkey has expressed with the concerns that Sweden has expressed and then we have been able to find a joint ground common ground, and then move forward based on that,” he said.
Turkey’s communications directorate said in a statement on Sunday that Sweden had “taken some steps in the right direction by making changes in the anti-terrorism legislation,” but it criticized Sweden for allowing protests by organizations that Turkey has designated terrorist groups, including the pro-Kurdish PKK and YPG.
Turkey has also criticized Sweden for allowing protests that involved the burning of the Quran.
Sweden had applied to join NATO along with Finland, which was also initially blocked by Turkey. But Finland and Turkey worked out an agreement, and in April, Finland became the 31st country to join the alliance.
As for Erdogan’s comments about Turkey joining the EU, Stoltenberg noted that he could not speak for the EU. Turkey has long sought membership to the EU, with the organization saying in 1999 that it would formally consider their application. After the 2004 enlargement — which did not include Turkey — the EU adopted a framework for negotiations, but there has been no progress since then.
Olivia Gazis contributed to this report.
Watch CBS News
Be the first to know
Get browser notifications for breaking news, live events, and exclusive reporting.
CBS News
Kash Patel, Trump’s pick for FBI director, targeted in possible Iran-backed cyberattack, sources say
Kash Patel, President-elect Donald Trump’s pick to lead the FBI, was recently notified that he was the target of a potential Iran-backed cyberattack, two people familiar with the matter confirmed to CBS News.
The apparent hackers targeted his communications, but whether they succeeded and how much access they had to the data is still being investigated, the people said.
The FBI declined to comment. CBS News had also reached out to the Trump campaign for comment.
The news of Iran’s potential targeting of Patel was first reported by Semafor.
This comes after months of warnings from the FBI and other federal agencies of Iranian cyber activity targeting Trump campaign staff leading up the 2024 presidential election. In September, Justice Department prosecutors charged three members of Iran’s Revolutionary Guard Corps with launching a broad hacking campaign against U.S. officials, including those close to Trump.
In August, Microsoft said that Iran was increasing its efforts to influence the November election, and in one case had targeted a presidential campaign with an email phishing attack.
Trump and his allies, including members of his first administration, have been targets of Iran since the 2020 killing of Gen. Qassem Soleimani in a U.S. airstrike in Baghdad, and U.S. officials continued to warn of those cyberattack campaigns in recent months.
The 44-year-old Patel served in intelligence and defense roles in Trump’s first term, including chief of staff to the secretary of defense. He was also designated by Trump to be a representative to the National Archives and Records Administration and fought a subpoena to testify before a federal grand jury in the Mar-a-Lago classified documents case.
He is an attorney and staunch Trump loyalist who rose to prominence as an aide to former Republican Rep. Devin Nunes of California, fighting the investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 election.
He served on Trump’s National Security Council, then as a senior adviser to acting Director of National Intelligence Ric Grenell, and later as chief of staff to acting Defense Secretary Christopher Miller.
President-elect Donald Trump is considering selecting Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis as his pick for defense secretary to potentially replace embattled Fox News host Pete Hegseth, two sources familiar with the transition told CBS News Tuesday night.
This comes after Trump and DeSantis attended a memorial for fallen law enforcement officers Tuesday in Florida.
The Wall Street Journal was first to report this story.
This is a developing story and will be updated.
GIPHY App Key not set. Please check settings