Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin said Friday that the administration was not slapping sanctions on Turkey at this time — but that the Trump administration would be giving his department “significant new sanctions authorities” targeting “any person associated with the government of Turkey.”

The penalties were being readied so that President Trump could follow through on his threat to “totally destroy and obliterate” Turkey’s economy if it does anything he considers “off limits.”

“I want to emphasize at this point, we are not activating the sanctions. There are no sanctions at this time,” Mnuchin told reporters at a White House briefing.

But, he added, a round of tough sanctions was in the works and could be activated if Turkey’s invasion of Syria escalates or ISIS prisoners escape.

“The president is concerned about the ongoing military offensive and potential targeting of civilians, civilian infrastructure, ethnic or religious minorities and also the president wants to make very clear it is imperative that Turkey not allow even a single ISIS fighter to escape,” he said.

Mnuchin denied that Trump’s earlier threat of sanctions had not dissuaded Turkey from attacking the Kurds, but would not elaborate, saying internal administration discussions on the issue were confidential.

“I’m not going to comment on specific confidential discussions that have been going on on different levels, so I don’t think that’s a good premise. But again, these are very powerful sanctions. We hope we don’t have to use them. But we can shut down the Turkish economy if we need to,” he said.

Trump issued his initial threat on Twitter on Monday.

“As I have stated strongly before, and just to reiterate, if Turkey does anything that I, in my great and unmatched wisdom, consider to be off limits, I will totally destroy and obliterate the Economy of Turkey,” he wrote.