October 14, 2019-As Turkey continued its military operation into northern Syria on Monday, U.S. lawmakers prepared to impose economic sanctions against current and former Turkish government officials contributing to the “destabilizing actions.”
While U.S. troops moved out of Syria, U.S. leaders prepared an economic response.
In a published statement released on Twitter, U.S. President Donald Trump said he is preparing an executive order to impose the sanctions against “those who may be involved in serious human rights abuses, obstructing a ceasefire, preventing displaced persons from returning home, forcibly repatriating refugees, or threatening the peace, security, or stability in Syria.”
Aside from sanctions against individuals, further actions could include raising tariffs on steel to 50 percent and cancelling U.S.-Turkish trade negotiations. “Turkey’s action is precipitating a humanitarian crisis and setting conditions for possible war crimes,” according to the Trump statement.
Earlier in the day, however, Trump reiterated his decision to pull U.S. soldiers out of Syria.
“Let them have their borders,” Trump said at an event in Washington on Monday. “But I don’t think our soldiers should be there for the next 50 years guarding a border between Turkey and Syria when we can’t guard our own borders at home. I don’t think so.”
Meanwhile, Sen. Lindsey Graham told Fox News that the U.S. Congress would be imposing “crippling sanctions” against Turkey to supplement the president’s executive actions. “We’re going to break his economy until he stops the bloodshed,” Graham said.
New And Old Alliances
Kurdish fighters, who had been aligned with U.S. forces, formed new alliances over the weekend with Syrian government and Russian forces to confront the Turkish forces.
Turkey launched the military incursion into northern Syria last Wednesday.
Turkish leaders call the invasion “Operation Peace Spring” and say the intent is to eliminate the region of terrorists. Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said he intends to create a buffer zone along the border where to resettle some of the 3.6 million Syrian refugees living in Turkey.
On Monday, Erdogan told reporters the operation has so far killed 500 Kurdish “terrorists” and captured 24 prisoners. He spoke with European leaders over the weekend, including German Chancellor Angela Merkel, British Prime Minister Boris Johnson, and French President Emmanuel Macron, urging them to support his operation.
“In my conversations with them, I realized they don’t know many important truths. They are not aware,” Erdogan said at a press conference in Istanbul on Monday. [Speech was translated.]
“All these countries are NATO members,” Erdogan said, referring to the principle of collective defense under the Fifth Article of the NATO alliance. “We are all under attack from a terror nation…. Are you going to be with a NATO ally or are you going to be with the terrorists?”
Merkel offered a tempered view after speaking with Erdogan. “Turkey does of course have justified security interests, ” Merkel said in an interview with the German DW broadcasting service. “But I believe, as does the federal government, that the offenses must be stopped in view of the grave humanitarian consequences.”
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