FM: Iran to Stand with Turkey against US Sanctions

"Trump's jubilation in inflicting economic hardship on its NATO ally Turkey is shameful. The US has to rehabilitate its addiction to sanctions and bullying or the whole world will unite—beyond verbal condemnations—to force it to," Zarif wrote on his twitter page on Saturday.
"We’ve stood with neighbors before, and will again now," he added.
A worsening dispute between the United States and Turkey reverberated through the global economy on Friday, hastening a broad flight of money from emerging markets and sowing instability throughout the Middle East as relations between the NATO allies neared a breaking point.
The immediate crisis — accelerated by a hostile tweet from President Trump — flared over Turkey’s continued detention of an American pastor, Andrew Brunson, who was jailed 21 months ago in a widespread crackdown after a failed coup in Turkey.
Turkey’s currency, the lira, which traded at 4.7 to the dollar a month ago, weakened to 6.4 to the dollar on Friday — the first time ever that it took more than 6 lira to buy a dollar. The lira has lost more than 30 percent of its value this month — roughly half of it this week.
Seeming to sense vulnerability, Trump piled on pressure and announced additional economic sanctions — doubling tariffs on imported Turkish steel to 50 percent and on aluminum to 20 percent — after having already penalized two Turkish government ministers last week.
Source: FNA