President Donald Trump on Monday signed an executive order to impose sanctions and visa bans on top members of the Turkish government as punishment for a Turkish offensive into Syria that Trump personally gave a green light to earlier this month. The Trump administration’s goal is a ceasefire, a senior administration official said in a call Monday with reporters after the announcement. Vice President Mike Pence will soon be traveling to Turkey, and top Trump aides will be working on the bid for a ceasefire, officials said. A change from Erdogan isn’t expected because “the messages coming from the Trump administration have been so mixed,” said Merve Tahiroglu, the Turkey program coordinator at the Project on Middle East Democracy. Greater financial sanctions could cause some pain in Turkey because of the country’s economic downturn.

Source: Huffington Post October 15, 2019 00:22 UTC