US Treasury Secretary Mnuchin threatens ‘very significant’ sanctions on Turkey

US Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin said on Friday that President Donald Trump had authorized US 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.

Addressing reporters at the White House, Mnuchin said Trump was poised to sign an executive order approving “very significant new sanctions authorities” – but that the United States was not yet “activating” the measures.

“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 added that 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.”