An email seen by Anadolu reveals a US-based firm called on legislators to impose sanctions on Turkey over Syria operation.
A lobbying firm working on behalf of the United Arab Emirates (UAE) has been trying to lobby politicians in the United States to impose sanctions on Turkey, the Turkish Anadolu news agency has revealed.
According to email records, seen by Anadolu, Akin Gump, a Washington-based lobbying firm sent an email to US legislators after the House of Representatives agreed to impose sanctions on Turkey over its launch of a military operation in northeast Syria in October.
The November 7 email, sent on behalf of the UAE embassy in Washington, condemned Turkey’s military operation, saying “the UAE supports measures to impose sanctions on Turkey, similar to a draft resolution adopted by the US House of Representative.”
The lobbying group also referred to what it described as Qatar‘s support for the Turkish military operation in Syria.
“We hope this information will help you at a time when the United States continues to monitor the situation in Syria, and the Senate is considering imposing sanctions on Turkey,” read the email.
The names of the US senators to whom the message was sent were not revealed. The UAE embassy in Washington declined to comment on the matter.
US senators backed legislation last week to impose sanctions on Turkey over the purchase of the Russian S-400 missile defense system earlier this year and its recent military operation in northern Syria.
The vote, which was immediately condemned by Turkey, was seen as the latest move to push US President Donald Trump to take a harder line against Ankara.
The Trump administration has so far not imposed sanctions despite the president in 2017 signing a sanctions law that mandates financial penalties for countries that do business with Russia‘s military.
