Turkey’s parliament’s foreign affairs committee on Thursday postponed a vote on ratifying Sweden’s NATO bid, marking another setback in the Scandinavian country’s bid to join the Western alliance after an 18-month wait, Reuters reported, according to News.ro.

Fuat Oktay, who heads the commission controlled by President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s ruling party, will hold further talks and may return the bill to the agenda next week, but has not set a clear deadline.

“In order for all our legislators to approve Sweden’s accession to NATO, they must be fully convinced. We will discuss all this at the (next) meeting of our commission (on this topic),” Oktay told reporters after hours of debate.

Parliament will call the Swedish ambassador to convince them

The committee can adopt bills by a simple majority. She could invite the Swedish ambassador to speak before the parliamentarians, if necessary and if the rules of the parliament allow it, added Oktay.

This month, Erdogan said he would try to facilitate the ratification process, but added that Sweden had not taken enough action against Kurdish militants.

To be ratified, a bill must be approved by a committee before being put to a vote by the full parliament, which could take days or weeks. Erdogan will then pass legislation to end the process, the length of which has frustrated Ankara’s allies and tested his ties with the West.

Sweden and Finland applied to join NATO last May after Russia invaded Ukraine.

Conditions put forward by Turkey to Sweden

At the time, Erdogan objected to both nominations because of what he says are protections the Nordic countries give to those Turkey considers terrorists, as well as an embargo on defense trade.

Turkey approved Finland’s bid in April, but let Sweden wait.

Turkey has asked Sweden to take additional measures to contain local members of the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK), which the European Union and the United States consider a terrorist group. In response, Stockholm introduced a new anti-terrorism bill that would make membership in a terrorist organization illegal and lift restrictions on arms exports to Turkey. Sweden says it has thus fulfilled its part of the agreement reached last year.

Despite comments from Deputy Foreign Minister Burak Akchapar outlining Sweden’s measures, MPs from both the ruling AK Party and the opposition expressed reservations and, in a rare move, postponed the vote.

“I appreciate the expansion of NATO. However, we have to eliminate some contradictions. Sweden has become a haven or even a haven for some terrorist organizations,” said Ali Sahin, a deputy from the Justice and Development Party. “We consider the measures that Sweden has taken so far valuable, but we do not consider them sufficient,” he added.

NATO members Finland, Canada and the Netherlands also took steps to relax policies on arms exports to Turkey, while the White House pledged to continue the transfer of F-16 fighter jets to Turkey after consulting with Congress.

While there is no clear timetable for approval of the F-16 purchase request, Ankara is linking the issue to Sweden’s bid.

On Thursday, Oktay echoed Erdogan’s sentiment: “If they have Congress, we have Parliament.”

Some analysts say Turkey’s parliament could fully complete the ratification process by the time NATO foreign ministers meet in Brussels on November 28-29.

The delay comes as Ankara is at odds with its Western allies over the conflict in Gaza, and its slow diplomacy over the war in Ukraine has also irritated some allies. Ankara maintains good relations with Moscow and Kiev, opposing the Russian invasion as well as Western sanctions against Russia.

Although NATO member Hungary has also not ratified Sweden’s accession, Turkey is seen as the main obstacle to Sweden’s accession.

Earlier on Thursday, the US ambassador to Hungary said that the Hungarian government had assured him that Budapest would not be the last to ratify Sweden’s bid, adding that he was “confident” that Stockholm would soon join NATO.