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Intel: How Venezuela is driving US, Turkey further apart

Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan and Venezuela's President Nicolas Maduro attend a news conference after an agreement-signing ceremony between Turkey and Venezuela at Miraflores Palace in Caracas, Venezuela December 3, 2018. REUTERS/Manaure Quintero - RC149F4F7600

Turkey’s rocky relationship with the United States has hit fresh turbulence over Ankara’s gold exports to Venezuela. Washington has aired worries that the flourishing trade may be in violation of US sanctions against President Nicolas Maduro’s embattled regime and is threatening to take action against its NATO ally. The Donald Trump administration has instructed US Assistant Treasury Secretary for Terrorist Financing Marshall Billingslea to broach the subject with Turkish authorities during a previously planned trip to Ankara to discuss US sanctions on another Washington bugbear, Iran.

Billingslea has previously voiced concerns about Venezuela’s gold imports to Turkey. “We are looking at the nature of Turkish-Venezuelan commercial activity,” a senior US official told Reuters, “and if we assess a violation of our sanctions, we will obviously take action.” Venezuela exported more than 20 metric tons of gold to Turkey last year and there are suspicions that some of it may have wound up in Iran’s hands.

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