China on Monday sanctioned 11 US politicians and heads of organisations in retaliation for the sanctions imposed by Washington on Hong Kong officials last week, news wires reported.

The US on Friday imposed sanctions on Hong Kong Chief Executive Carrie Lam, the territory's current and former police chiefs and eight other officials for their role in curtailing political freedoms in the territory, news wires reported.

The US President Donald Trump on Tuesday ended trade preferences for Hong Kong and signed into law an act that authorizes sanctions on banks over China's clampdown in the international finance hub, news wires reported.

The United States on Wednesday imposed its toughest sanctions ever targeting Syrian President Bashar al-Assad to choke off revenue for his government in a bid to force it back to United Nations-led negotiations and broker an end to the country’s nearly decade-long war.

The EU once again urged Turkey last week to drop plans to drill for oil and gas around Cyprus and the eastern Mediterranean, saying such exploration was illegal, news wires reported. “Concrete steps towards creating an environment conducive to dialogue in good faith are needed,” EU foreign policy spokesman Peter Stano said in a statement. “The intention by Turkey to launch further exploration and drilling activities in the region goes, regrettably, in the opposite direction.”

China suspended US warship visits and sanctioned American NGOs on Monday in retaliation for the passage of a bill backing pro-democracy protesters in Hong Kong. It comes after last week US President Donald Trump signed the Hong Kong Human Rights and Democracy Act, which requires the president to annually review the city's favourable trade status and threatens to revoke it if the semi-autonomous territory's freedoms are quashed.

The United States on Wednesday imposed sanctions on Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif, the US Treasury Department's Office of Foreign Assets Control said on its website. The Treasury Department said it was imposing sanctions on Zarif for acting on behalf of Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.

The United States threatened on Monday to impose tariffs on $4bn in European Union goods, citing vague “additional analysis” ostensibly over the lengthy dispute involving subsidies for the world's two largest plane manufacturers. The decision though also came mere days after the bloc restarted trade in essential goods with Iran.

The United States is today due to further tighten sanctions on Iran, as relations between the two countries continue to deteriorate. Washington has previously sanctioned economically significant sectors of Iran such as oil, banks, aircraft and steel, leaving smaller targets including certain exports not restricted so far as well as government officials unaffected by previous measures.

Turkey threatened to “take reciprocal steps” if the United States imposes sanctions over its purchase of Russian S-400 defenses, the Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu said on Friday, marking the latest step toward a standoff between the NATO allies.