Secretary of the US Treasury Steven Mnuchin has said additional US sanctions are ready if Turkey refuses to release an American pastor who the Trump administration says is illegally detained, Bloomberg reported.
President Donald Trump said during a Cabinet meeting at the White House on Thursday that Turkey has not turned out to be a great friend to the US, and he complained that his administration had secured the release of a Turkish citizen from an unnamed country on Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan’s behalf.
“We got somebody out for him,” Trump said, from “some place,” but Turkey continues to hold pastor Andrew Brunson. It’s “not right” and a “terrible thing,” he said.
Mnuchin then said his department had prepared additional sanctions. The lira pared its gains for the day on the news.
Brunson was put under a house arrest by a Turkish court after almost two years of incarceration on charges of terrorism.
