Trump’s sanctions threat not impacting US-Turkey ties

By Umar Farooq

WASHINGTON (AA) - President Donald Trump’s threat of sanctions on Turkey have not had an impact on U.S. military relations with Turkey, the American defense chief said Friday.

“We’ve had no impact on U.S.-Turkey relations, military operations,” James Mattis told reporters at the Pentagon.

His assessment follows a tweet by Trump that threatened sanctions against Ankara for the detainment of an American pastor.

Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu responded on Twitter, saying Turkey “will not tolerate threats from anybody.”

The back-and-forth between Trump and Cavusoglu have not trickled down to military relations between the two sides.

“At this time we continue to work very closely together,” Mattis added.

The American in question, Andrew Brunson, was arrested in the Aegean province of Izmir in December 2016 on charges of committing crimes for the terror groups FETO and PKK. He was recently transferred to house arrest due to health concerns.

*Kasim Ileri contributed to this story