Following President Trump’s very public threats to totally destroy the entire Turkish economy over northern Syria, Vice President Mike Pence says that there will be no new sanctions under the ceasefire announced Thursday.
There are reasons to expect Pence to say that, as well, since the terms of the US-Turkey deal explicitly say that so long as Turkey’s offensive is halted, the US will not impose any new sanctions. There are a lot more reasons to doubt the US honoring this US-proposed deal, however.
Even as the deal was being made, top lawmakers were pushing for resolutions that would impose more sanctions against Turkey. Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC) insisted he will continue to ensure Congress speaks in a “firm, singular voice” on the strongest sanctions possible against Turkey.
This isn’t just Congress ignoring diplomatic reality, either. Trump adviser Larry Kudlow confirmed, after the US had just signed a deal promising not to impose new sanctions, that the US “may use more sanctions to keep Turkey in line.”
That official stance certainly isn’t likely to inspire a lot of confidence in Turkey, and since that promise of no sanctions is really all the US offered under this ceasefire deal, the chances of the US dishonoring the deal are likely to be a big concern going forward.
They all have to go through the motions: congress critters hand-wringing, Trump blustering and threatening, the MSM pointing fingers… Eventually, the USA is going to have to realize that we’ve lost another war and that the regime-change op in Syria was a monumental fiasco. We destroyed another ME country for Israel. It was only the Russians who were sane enough to cut through the Zionist BS and salvage some semblance of order in Syria. And they did this without wasting billions on arming head choppers and thugs. There’ll be a lot of ‘splainin’ to do come 2020. I guess the banksters in the fed will pull the plug on the economy as a distraction putting who knows who in place as POTUS.