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After Syria incursion, White House mulls sanctions on Erdogan

Washington is reportedly considering sanctions on Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan over Turkey’s military incursion into northern Syria, with enormous implications for the two allies' long strategic partnership.
U.S. President Donald Trump answers questions from reporters during an event to sign executive orders on "transparency in federal guidance and enforcement" in the Roosevelt Room of the White House in Washington, U.S., October 9, 2019.  REUTERS/Jonathan Ernst - RC1D0C443790

The US administration is expected to announce an unspecified package of sanctions against Turkey today, Bloomberg has reported. The news came after Al-Monitor reported that Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan was among a list of officials and entities under consideration for sanctions. 

The administration has been weighing whether to add Erdogan to a proposed list of Turkish officials and entities to be sanctioned over NATO ally Turkey’s military incursion into northern Syria, an administration official and a source with close knowledge of the administration’s policy-making told Al-Monitor. The administration sanctioning the Turkish president would deliver a huge, and potentially irreversible blow to over half a century of strategic partnership between the two countries and place Erdogan and his government in the same basket as Iran and Venezuela, the source who is privy to the administration’s deliberations told Al-Monitor. The Bloomberg report did not mention the president nor did it specify who or what entities if any were designated but said the sanctions were awaiting President Donald Trump's approval.

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