Turkey to observe only UN sanctions on Iran: report
(ANKARA) - Turkey will abide by UN sanctions on neighbouring Iran but will not follow tougher measures imposed by the United States and the European Union, a minister said in a newspaper interview Monday.
"We will fully implement UN resolutions but when it comes to individual countries' demands for extra sanctions we do not have to," Finance Minister Mehmet Simsek told the Financial Times.
"The facilitation of trade that is not prohibited under UN resolution should and will continue," he said.
If a trade deal needs to be financed, "we will have to find a way to pay for it," he added.
Turkey voted against a fourth round of UN sanctions against Iran when the Security Council, where it holds a non-permanent seat, approved the measures in June to increase pressure on Tehran over its nuclear programme.
Ankara argued that its "no" vote aimed to keep the door open for a negotiated settlement to the dispute under a nuclear fuel swap deal that Turkish and Brazilian leaders reached with Tehran in May.
The EU, which Turkey is seeking to join, hit Iran with fresh measures against its vital oil and gas industry on Monday.
Earlier this month, the US introduced its toughest ever sanctions on Iran, aimed to choke off its access to imports of refined petroleum products like gasoline and jet fuel and curb its access to the international banking system.
Iran is Turkey's second largest natural gas supplier after Russia through a pipeline between the two countries.
Last week, Iran signed a 1.3-billion-dollar deal with a Turkish company to build a new pipeline for gas exports, Iranian media quoted officials as saying.
In 2007, Ankara inked a preliminary deal with Tehran to carry gas from Iran and Turkmenistan to Europe and to develop three gas fields in Iran, drawing US criticism.
The Islamist-rooted government in Ankara has developed close relations with Tehran in recent years, feeding concerns that NATO's sole mainly Muslim member is sliding away from the West.
The government denies the charges, insisting that it seeks to balance Turkey's traditionally pro-Western orientation with closer political and economic ties with its Eastern neighbours.
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