{"id":11824,"date":"2018-08-17T09:29:55","date_gmt":"2018-08-17T09:29:55","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/?p=11824"},"modified":"2018-08-17T09:29:55","modified_gmt":"2018-08-17T09:29:55","slug":"us-threatens-more-sanctions-on-turkey-over-detained-pastor","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/?p=11824","title":{"rendered":"US threatens more sanctions on Turkey over detained pastor"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

The US<\/a> has threatened to levy more sanctions on Turkey<\/a> if Ankara does not release\u00a0an American Christian Evangelical pastor held on terrorism charges.<\/p>\n

Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin suggested during a cabinet meeting on Thursday that the next spiral of tit-for-tat sanctions was coming soon, deepening a spat that has rattled financial markets, if\u00a0Andrew Brunson<\/a>\u00a0is not released by Turkey.<\/p>\n

“We have put sanctions on several of their cabinet members,” said Mnuchin. “We have more that we are planning to do if they don’t release him quickly.”<\/p>\n

US President Donald Trump<\/a> prefaced Mnuchin’s remarks by saying that Turkey had not been a very good friend to the US. He later tweeted that the clergyman, who has been detained since 2016 when he was arrested in a government crackdown following a failed coup bid<\/a>, was a “great patriot” being held “hostage”.<\/p>\n

The threat comes as Turkey sought to reassure investors rattled by the sanctions-fueled crash of the Turkish lira<\/a>, insisting the country would emerge stronger.<\/p>\n

Turkey, meanwhile, has threatened to respond if further sanctions were levied over Brunson’s detention.<\/p>\n

“We’ve already responded based on the World Trade Organization rules and will continue to do so,” Trade Minister Ruhsar Pekcan was quoted as saying by the state-run Anadolu news agency.<\/p>\n

Currency fluctuations<\/h2>\n

On Thursday, Finance Minister Berat Albayrak<\/a>\u00a0addressed hundreds of foreign investors from the US, Europe and Asia via a conference call in a bid to soothe the markets.<\/p>\n

“Turkey will emerge stronger from these [currency] fluctuations,” Albayrak was quoted by state-run TRT television as saying.<\/p>\n

He rejected seeking a bailout from the IMF<\/a>, an option never seen as likely given that President Recep Tayyip Erdogan<\/a> often boasts of paying off Turkey’s past IMF debts in May 2013.<\/p>\n

The lira has clawed back some ground over the last two days – after losing almost a quarter of its value on Friday and Monday – but economists are warning that Turkey must urgently address its economic imbalances to avoid more trouble.<\/p>\n

The lira’s months-long slide has accelerated as a result of the diplomatic standoff with Washington over Brunson’s detention.<\/p>\n

A Trump tweet last week announcing a doubling of aluminium and steel tariffs for Turkey triggered the rout in the currency markets.<\/p>\n

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

Market consolidation<\/h2>\n

Qatar has pledged<\/a> to channel $15bn of direct investment into Turkey, a sign of burgeoning ties between the two countries.<\/p>\n

Analysts 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

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

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

Albayrak has also spoken with his German counterpart Olaf Scholz and they agreed to “take steps in order to reinforce economic cooperation”, his office said.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The US has threatened to levy more sanctions on Turkey if Ankara does not release\u00a0an American Christian Evangelical pastor held on terrorism charges. Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin suggested during a cabinet meeting on Thursday that the next spiral of tit-for-tat sanctions was coming soon, deepening a spat that has rattled financial markets, if\u00a0Andrew Brunson\u00a0is not…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10,"featured_media":11825,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-11824","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\/11824","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=11824"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11824\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/11825"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=11824"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=11824"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=11824"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}