{"id":11796,"date":"2018-08-17T02:25:38","date_gmt":"2018-08-17T02:25:38","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/?p=11796"},"modified":"2018-08-17T02:25:38","modified_gmt":"2018-08-17T02:25:38","slug":"us-threaten-more-sanctions-as-turkey-scrambles-to-reassure-investors","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/?p=11796","title":{"rendered":"US threaten more sanctions as Turkey scrambles to reassure investors"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

\nWASHINGTON: The United States warned on Thursday that it would levy more sanctions on the troubled Turkish economy if Ankara does not\u00a0 release a jailed American pastor.<\/p>\n

\nThe announcement by Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin deepened a dispute that has rattled financial markets.<\/p>\n

\n\u201cWe have put sanctions on several of their cabinet members,\u201d Mnuchin told President Donald Trump in a cabinet meeting.<\/p>\n

\n\u201cWe have more that we are planning to do if they don\u2019t release him quickly.\u201d<\/p>\n

\nTrump said Turkey, which has a political and military alliance with the US, had not been a very good friend to America, AFP reported.<\/p>\n

\nReferring to imprisoned pastor Andrew Brunson, Trump said \u201cthey have a great Christian pastor there, he’s a very innocent man.\u201d<\/p>\n

\nThe threat comes as Turkey scrambled to reassure investors reeling from the crash of the Turkish lira.<\/p>\n

\nFinance Minister Berat Albayrak, the son-in-law of President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, addressed hundreds of foreign investors from the United States, Europe and Asia in a conference call in a bid to soothe the markets.<\/p>\n

\nThe lira has clawed back some ground over the last two days after losing almost a quarter of its value on Friday and Monday.<\/p>\n

\n\u201cTurkey will emerge stronger from these fluctuations,\u201d Albayrak said.<\/p>\n

\nAlbayrak rejected seeking an IMF bailout. Erdogan often boasts of paying off Turkey’s past IMF debts in 2013.<\/p>\n

\nThe lira\u2019s months-long slide has accelerated as a result of the diplomatic standoff with Washington over Brunson\u2019s detention. A Trump tweet on Friday announcing a doubling of aluminum and steel tariffs for Turkey triggered the rout in the currency markets.<\/p>\n

\nThe lira, which earlier this week traded at well over seven to the dollar, held onto its gains during Albayrak\u2019s discussion, trading at 5.7 against the American currency.<\/p>\n

\n\u201cWe will turn this crisis into an opportunity,\u201d said Erdogan\u2019s spokesman Ibrahim Kalin after a cabinet meeting chaired by the president, saying measures taken so far had helped bring about a \u201crapid improvement process\u201d over the last two days.<\/p>\n

\nBut Albayrak, who was appointed last month, will have a tough time restoring order to an economy plagued by high inflation and a current account imbalance.<\/p>\n

\nThe lira\u2019s drop in value is certain to further fuel inflation, which is already near 16 percent.<\/p>\n

\nAlbayrak said there would be no concessions on fiscal discipline, adding: \u201cWe are targeting lowering inflation into the single digits as soon as possible.\u201d<\/p>\n

\nHowever, analysts are calling for a sharp hike in interest rates – which Erdogan adamantly opposes because it will put a brake on economic growth.<\/p>\n

\nIn an intensifying cycle of tensions with the United States, Erdogan has called for a boycott of US electronic goods such as iPhones and Ankara has sharply hiked tariffs on some US products.<\/p>\n

\nHe has also warned Ankara could start looking for new allies, as well as new markets.<\/p>\n

\nQatar, which has moved closer to Ankara since a boycott was imposed last year by Saudi Arabia and other Arab countries, on Wednesday pledged to channel $15 billion direct investment into Turkey in defiance of the US.<\/p>\n

\nAnalysts say Turkey is also likely to seek a more dynamic economic relationship with China and Russia, with whom ties have warmed considerably in recent years.<\/p>\n

\nTurkey has also in recent days shown an interest in repairing ties with Europe after a crisis sparked by Ankara’s crackdown on alleged plotters of the 2016 failed coup.<\/p>\n

\nErdogan and his French counterpart Emmanuel Macron agreed in a phone call Thursday to foster trade ties, a Turkish presidential source said.<\/p>\n

\nAlbayrak spoke Thursday with his German counterpart Olaf Scholz and they agreed to \u201ctake steps in order to reinforce economic cooperation,\u201d Albayrak’s office said.<\/p>\n

\nMeanwhile, Turkish courts have moved to defuse other legal cases that have irritated relations with the EU.<\/p>\n

\nAn Istanbul court allowed the release of Amnesty International’s Turkey chair Taner Kilic Wednesday, who spent more than a year in jail over alleged links to the 2016 coup bid.<\/p>\n

\nAnd the day earlier, two Greek soldiers held by Turkey since March for illegally crossing the border were also freed.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

WASHINGTON: The United States warned on Thursday that it would levy more sanctions on the troubled Turkish economy if Ankara does not\u00a0 release a jailed American pastor. The announcement by Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin deepened a dispute that has rattled financial markets. \u201cWe have put sanctions on several of their cabinet members,\u201d Mnuchin told President…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10,"featured_media":11797,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-11796","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-middle_east_news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11796","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/10"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=11796"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11796\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/11797"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=11796"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=11796"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=11796"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}