Turkey will not ban Iranian oil imports like the U.S. and European Union, unless United Nations sanctions are imposed, a spokesman for Turkey’s Energy Ministry said Monday.
“We are not bound by EU or US decisions, so we will only block Iranian oil imports if the UN decides to impose such sanctions on Iran,” he said. Turkey receives approximately half of its oil imports from Iran.
The U.S. was successful in pressuring EU countries to inflict more economic pain on themselves by cutting off one of their main oil suppliers, Iran. Now Iran has threatened to cut off all oil exports to the EU, preempting the embargo that was set for six months in the future.
Turkey is an ally of Iran’s, having brokered a deal on a nuclear fuel swap with Iran that satisfied the Obama administration’s demands and was widely considered a diplomatic triumph. Until, that is, that the U.S. rejected it and chose a posture of sanctions and aggression instead. Turkish diplomats still hope to mend ties with Iran and the West.
Turkey is too busy doing NATO's bidding in Syria to start things up with Iran just yet.
Let's not fool ourselves, Turkey will fold to international pressure eventually, luckily this will have the side-effect of putting more pressure onto the Iranian regime. I'd prefer to see sanctions on them rather than war but I don't trust them. I think that regardless of propaganda from either side it's in Iran's long-term interest to develop nuclear weapons, if only to solidify their stranglehold on the Iranian people and defend themselves from outside threats to their corrupt regime. Look at iranuclear.wordpress.com and that should help you figure it out.
Thank God Turkey was never accepted in the EU. This will be their saving grace as European Union begins to fall apart and tear apart the very nations and peoples it was meant to … cheat.
The EU's loss will be someone else's gain.
Why do the EU countries act like Washington is their Lord and master? What reason could they have for not pursuing their own and not Washington's interests?
How very mighty and honorable of Turkey. Now, if they only saw it fit to also resist membership in NATO that would be something to talk about.
Turkey is not to be trusted. They will go to kisses and hugs with the Israelis any day.