Proposed language on Turkey sanctions in defense of what Congressional lawmakers call US hostages was dropped from a draft $1.3 trillion federal spending bill that was released to the public yesterday.

The move comes amid a concerted push by the State Department to assuage Turkey, a critical NATO ally, over the United States’ continued support for Syrian Kurdish militants labelled terrorists by Ankara. The State Department’s Bureau of European and Eurasian Affairs, which handles relations with Turkey, is believed to have played a major part in persuading Congress to shelve proposed sanctions against Turkish officials deemed to have been responsible for what the Donald Trump administration terms the unlawful detention of US nationals and Turkish citizens employed by the US consulates in Istanbul and Adana.

Sen. Jeanne Shaheen, D-N.H., who together with Sen. James Paul Lankford, R-Okla., co-sponsored the sanctions language, confirmed to Al-Monitor that it had been pulled to allow more time for diplomacy to work. Shaheen said in an email: “The safety and security of US hostages held in Turkey is a bipartisan concern and priority for Congress. This is why, upon further discussion with those involved in diplomatic negotiations, Senator Lankford and I have agreed to give the State Department’s newly established dialogue with Turkey more time to succeed.”

Shaheen was referring to a consultative mechanism announced by outgoing Secretary of State Rex Tillerson following talks in Ankara with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu. The dialogue is multi-pronged, with differences on Syria and the status of imprisoned Americans and consulate staff as well as that of Fethullah Gulen, the Pennsylvania-based Sunni cleric Turkey wants extradited over his alleged masterminding of the July 2016 coup, dominating the agenda.