U.S. prosecutors on Tuesday charged Halkbank with taking part in a multi-billion-dollar scheme to evade U.S. sanctions on Iran.

Halkbank said the U.S. charges against it amounted to an escalation of Washington's sanctions on Ankara over its military incursion in Syria, while President Tayyip Erdogan called them an "unlawful, ugly" step.

(Reporting by Tuvan Gumrukcu; Editing by Dale Hudson)