According to Reuters, five sources, including three U.S. officials, said that the sanctions against Turkey are expected to be announced as early as the 11th, which may further intensify Turkey’s long-deteriorating relationship with the two NATO allies and give the incoming Biden administration to its relations with Turkey. Create obstacles.
Sources said that the sanctions against Turkey will target Ismail Demir, the head of Turkey’s defense industry, and the sanctions will be very destructive, but narrower than some analysts previously expected.
Two sources, including a U.S. official who declined to be named, said Trump had given aides permission to impose sanctions on Turkey.
After the news came out, the exchange rate of the Turkish lira fell 1.4%. U.S. sanctions could further hurt Turkey’s economy, which is in dire condition due to the coronavirus-induced economic slowdown, double-digit inflation and severe consumption of foreign exchange reserves.
A senior Turkish official said that the U.S. sanctions against Turkey would be counterproductive and damage the relationship between the two NATO members. He said: “Sanctions will not achieve the result [the United States wants], but they will be counterproductive.
They will damage the relationship between the two countries. He also said that Turkey was in favor of solving these problems through diplomacy and negotiation. But we will never accept unilateral sanctions from the United States.
Turkish President Erdoğan had hoped to prove that the threat to the United States was empty and believed that his relationship with Trump would protect Turkey from U.S. sanctions.
Trump has long opposed sanctions against Turkey, even if some advisers have advised him to do so. According to people familiar with the matter, when the Turkish government began to accept the Russian-made S-400 air defense system in July 2019, some Trump administration officials proposed to impose sanctions on Turkey internally.
But sources point out that sanctions are inevitable even if Trump does not take action against Turkey.
On the 8th, the U.S. House of Representatives passed the Defense Authorization Act for fiscal year 2021, which totaled more than $740 billion, by a vote of 335 to 78 against, which provides for sanctions on Turkey’s purchase of Russian S-400 anti-aircraft missile systems.
The bill will then be voted on in the U.S. Senate. Once voted, the final version of the FY2021 Defense Authorization Bill will force Washington to impose sanctions on Turkey within 30 days.
One of the reasons why Trump finally agreed to impose sanctions on Turkey early was to “decouple” it from the defense authorization bill, so that Trump could avoid appearing forced to accept the matter, a U.S. official said.
Reuters said that the sanctions decision made by the United States will also have far-reaching implications outside Turkey and will send a clear signal to American partners who may consider purchasing Russian military equipment.
