US President Donald Trump said Monday that "tough sanctions" against Turkey could be issued soon in response to Ankara´s military offensive against Kurdish forces in northern Syria.
"Tough sanctions against Turkey are coming!" Trump said in a tweet, without giving further details.
For his part, US Treasury Secretary Stephen Mnuchin from the White House later that the presidential national security team will meet on Monday to assess this file.
"It is clearly not too late for the United States to impose sanctions on Turkey."
He pointed out that "the situation is complex," recalling that Turkey is a member of NATO.
Senator Lindsey Graham, a leading Republican, said Congress would quickly act with bipartisan support.
He told Fox News that Erdogan "made the biggest political mistake of his life."
"I have never seen such bipartisan support in my life," he said.
"Republicans and Democrats working with the administration will impose tough sanctions similar to those imposed on Iran, and he deserves it."
"We will get him out of Syria and we will rearrange things."
Mnuchin announced on Friday that the US president has ordered tough sanctions against Ankara but has not yet been activated.
Since announcing the withdrawal of US troops from positions on the Turkish-Syrian border eight days ago, Trump has given contradictory signals while stressing that Americans should free themselves from Middle East wars, while threatening Turkey with "destroying its economy."
