An international law expert was astounded on Sunday as the Trump administration quietly "rewarded" a country for helping Iran evade U.S. sanctions.
Last week, the Trump administration approved a settlement with Turkey's state-owned Halkbank, which laundered money from Iranian oil back to the Iranian regime while the country was under maximum sanctions by the U.S. In all, the fine for the case could have surpassed $40 billion, according to Sinan Ciddi, senior fellow and director of the Turkey Program at Foundation for Defense of Democracies.
Cinan argued in an op-ed for The Hill that the Trump administration was undermining the credibility of the U.S. by letting Turkey off the hook with such a lenient settlement.
Cinan discussed the settlement with Adam Klasfeld on a new episode of the "All Rise News" podcast on Sunday.
"I still continue to understand that the Turkish government is insisting that there will be no formal admission of guilt to the outcome of this," he said. "Basically, in common everyday language, they're walking away from this with zero or very minimal damage to reputation, or any sort of accountability for what they've done. And it's disappointing."
Cinan described the settlement as a "reward" for Turkey, although it remains unclear what they're being rewarded for. Turkey is a NATO ally and may have been involved in returning the October 7 hostages to Israel, Cinan noted.
"I don't necessarily think that Turkey should be rewarded for doing the bare minimum, which is the right thing," Cinan said. "But, if it is playing an outsized role in, for example, bringing the Iranian regime to its knees, or it's going to play a proactive role in securing a ceasefire in Iran or something that is of material value, I don't know necessarily if that meets the bar of letting off the hook a country that has done so much damage our sanctions regime on Iran."