U.S. Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin speaks about sanctions against Turkey at a news briefing at the White House in Washington, U.S., October 11, 2019. REUTERS/Yuri Gripas
October 11, 2019
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – U.S. Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin said on Friday that President Donald Trump had authorized U.S. officials to draft “very significant” new sanctions to target Turkey after it launched an offensive in northeast Syria but added that they were not executing the sanctions at this time.
Mnuchin said the United States was not activating the sanctions at this time but would do so if necessary.
“These are very powerful sanctions. We hope we don’t have to use them, but we can shut down the Turkish economy if we need to,” Mnuchin said.
Mnuchin said Trump was concerned about Turkey’s potential targeting of civilians and wants to make clear that Turkey cannot “allow even a single ISIS fighter to escape.”
(Reporting by Jeff Mason; Writing by Makini Brice and Jan Wolfe; Editing by Mary Milliken, Susan Heavey and Cynthia Osterman)
