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On October 14th, US President Donald Trump issued a statement addressing Turkey’s advance on northeastern Syria.
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“I have been perfectly clear with [Turkish President Recep Tayyip] Erdogan: Turkey’s action is precipitating a humanitarian crisis and setting conditions for possible war crimes,” Trump added in his statement.
“Turkey must ensure the safety of civilians, including religous and ethnic minorities, and is now, or may be in the future, responsible for the ongoing detention of ISIS terrorists in the region.”
US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, too, provided a statement, saying that Turkey’s actions severely undermined the campaign against ISIS and that it would exacerbate the humanitarian crisis in Syria.
No mention of the Kurdish militias was made in Pompeo’s statement.
This destabilizing operation by Turkey continues, and has now created a growing and disastrous humanitarian crisis. We remain committed to a political solution to the conflict in Syria in line with UNSCR 2254. Turkey’s unilateral actions led to these sanctions. pic.twitter.com/5qWvjyLPYD
— Secretary Pompeo (@SecPompeo) October 14, 2019
US officials are also giving quite contradictory information.
US Vice President Mike Pence also spoke to the press, saying that President Trump spoke to President Erdogan and called for an immediate ceasefire.
Vice President Pence says President Trump spoke to President Erdogan today. Says the US wants Turkey to stop the invasion and begin an immediate cease fire. pic.twitter.com/hnOTG48cfY
— Eamon Javers (@EamonJavers) October 14, 2019
Pence further said that the newly-introduced sanctions on Turkey are just “the beginning,” and any negotiations on removing them would come after a complete ceasefire.
The vice president was accompanied by US Secretary of Treasury Steven Mnuchin who spoke of the sanctions that are aimed at “shutting down” Turkey’s economy.
Pence declined that there were any plans for Erdogan to visit the White House, despite previous anonymous White House sources saying that he would visit on November 13th.
In complete contrast to what Pence said, Mnuchin said that the sanctions would be removed if Turkey took the necessary actions and made no mention of a need to negotiate.
Mnuchin, furthermore, on October 14th warned that “the president has authorized me to effectively shut down the entire Turkey economy, and we can do that at a moment’s notice.”
On the very next day, alongside Pence, he said that “as we’ve warned all long, our desire is not to shut down the Turkish economy” but to see an appropriate response.
The sanctions that were announced are aimed at the Turkish Ministry of Defense, Ministry of Energy and Natural resources, as well as the Ministers of Defense Hulusi Akar, the Minister of Interior Suleyman Soylu and Energy Minister Fatih Donmez.
“The United States is holding the Turkish Government accountable for escalating violence by Turkish forces, endangering innocent civilians, and destabilizing the region,” said Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin.
“The United States is holding the Turkish Government accountable for escalating violence by Turkish forces, endangering innocent civilians, and destabilizing the region,” -Secretary @stevenmnuchin1. https://t.co/YpLTGrIa8A
— Treasury Department (@USTreasury) October 14, 2019
So as not to impede US businesses operating in Turkey, the Department of the Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) issued several General Licenses.
“General License 1 authorizes the conduct of the official business of the United States Government by employees, grantees, or contractors otherwise prohibited by the order. General License 2 authorizes a 30 day wind down period for all transactions and activities that are ordinarily incident and necessary to the wind down operations, contracts, or other agreements involving the Ministries of National Defence or Energy and Natural Resources of the Government of Turkey. General License 3 authorizes official activities of the United Nations involving the Ministry of National Defence or the Ministry of Energy and Natural Resources of the Government of Turkey.”
The US is attempting to absolve itself from all responsibility for what is transpiring in northeastern Syria, by saying that it denied it from the beginning, despite being an obvious enabler. After all, who can deny that they are responsible, after they sanction Turkish ministers and government bodies, with sanctions that will likely have little to no effect.
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Yes, Absolutely :)
some LA grade b porn director writes the US foreign policy propaganda stream of unconsciousness
trump has to do something to put into the throat of the democrats, schiff, pelosi and the other guys screaming at the top of their voices. sanctions as is well known doesn’t accomplish a whole lot and these will be in force a short period only – great to see how events unfold a) there is clever russian president who knows how the job shall be done and that coincides with b) another president’s wish to end useless and costly wars that his country is involved in since time memorial. and now it seems the syrian anguish is about to end, trump will finalize his march towards the undisputed commander in chief and take on the issue of getting the american society back in shape.
Is this good news for Turkey? Look what US sanctions did for Russia, China, Iran, North Korea.
The world is a different place than what is was a couple of decade ago. People are wiser and countries once of their knees now have thriving economies. They no longer need the US aid and cia agents posing as NGO’s that go along with it. US influence across the world is coming to a close and with it any notion of their New World Order. The best they could possibly hope for in the future is equal billing.
Mr Mnuchin is wishful thinking if he thinks it will that easy to ruin the Turkish economy. His own economy is tottering like a drunken sailor.
The Trump usual…start with a lie, continue with lies, then finish with more lies. Brain dead Americans will eat this up, especially the part about the great American military wiping out ISIS…never mind the 1,000s of innocent people we’ve slaughtered. If Americans knew the truth, that ISIS is an American/Israeli op, they wouldn’t believe it anyway. I especially liked the part about remaining in Al Tanf, to keep an eye on things, in case we have to go back in…you know, to attack ISIS after we’ve completely obliterated them. They’ll just magically re-appear…from SW Syria. As for Turkish sanctions, I guess Trump forgets that Turkey produces the HUD and airframe for F-35s and we don’t. America, the great and powerful, wields it’s magnificent influence and might for the good of the world. Rah, rah, sis, boom bah. Eat it up America, you’ll feel even better. The rest of the world knows that if the US leaves the middle east and stops it’s backing of criminal states, peace would be very much in reach. But that is not ever going to happen with any US admin, especially one where the president (and the vast majority of CONgress) is owned by them. That Trump has decided to leave NE Syria is welcome news, as Syria will reap rewards from this. This must gall his pals in Israel…unless there is more to his madness that we know yet.
The lunatics have taken over the asylum.