The US failed to secure assurances on Wednesday from Turkey to immediately free an American pastor, US officials said, deepening a crisis between the two countries and setting stage for the Trump administration to take new punitive steps.
According to a report by the Wall Street Journal, during high-level talks in Washington, US and Turkish officials were unable to produce a breakthrough in an impasse that has pushed Turkey’s economy into turmoil, officials said.
The Turkish lira hit a record low on Thursday, plunging to TL 5,43 to the US dollar.
A Turkish delegation headed by Deputy Foreign Minister Sedat Önal arrived in Washington for key meetings to resolve the current crisis in relations after the US imposed sanctions on Turkey’s Interior Minister Süleyman Soylu and Justice Minister Abdülhamit Gül over the detention of American pastor Andrew Brunson.
A nine-person delegation met Deputy Secretary of State John Sullivan on Wednesday in a bid to ease tensions between the countries. “We held additional talks with Turkish officials. The conversations continue,” Reuters quoted US State Department Spokersperson Heather Nauert as saying after the talks.
The delegation, consisting of officials from Turkey’s foreign, justice and finance ministries, did not make a statement as talks closed, and the Turkish state-run Anadolu news agency reported that it would go on to meet department officials.
These will include US treasury officials, a Treasury spokesperson said on Wednesday. The delegation “is looking for any deal because they’ve got to have something to go back to Ankara with,” a former US official told Reuters on condition of anonymity.
The United States, however, is unlikely to agree to any deal unless Turkey agrees to release US Pastor Brunson, whose arrest sparked the diplomatic row, the US official said.
The Turkish lira has faced a steep decline since the sanctions were announced, plunging to a record low of 5,43 to the dollar on Monday as investors were spooked by the decision to review Turkish duty-free access to the US market.
A Turkish court on July 25 put American pastor under house arrest after almost two years in pretrial detention.
Minister Gül on Tuesday said the court ruling on Brunson, who faces 35 years, was made with “justice, fairness and reason.”
Following the court ruling US President Donald Trump and Vice President Mike Pence threatened to impose “large sanctions” on Turkey if Brunson were not freed.
The Turkish prosecutor accuses Brunson, who runs a small church in İzmir, of activities on behalf of the outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) as well as the Gülen movement, which is accused by the Turkish government of orchestrating a failed coup in 2016, an allegation strongly denied by the movement.
US-Turkish relations have taken a battering this year over diverse issues ranging from the Turkish purchase of Russian missile defence systems to contradictory policies in Syria, but it was the imprisonment of Brunson, a Turkey-based pastor, and other US citizens and employees that finally led to U.S. sanctions on Turkey in late July. (SCF with turkishminute.com)
The post US positioned to impose new sanctions on Turkey as talks fail on Brunson appeared first on Stockholm Center for Freedom.
from Stockholm Center for Freedom https://stockholmcf.org/us-positioned-to-impose-new-sanctions-on-turkey-as-talks-fail-on-brunson/
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