WASHINGTON – Turkey on Wednesday rebuffed a U.S. effort to persuade it to scale back its trade ties with Iran, despite a persistent U.S. lobbying campaign this week in Washington and Ankara.
Ali Babacan, Turkey’s deputy foreign minister, told reporters in Washington that Turkish companies will remain “free to make their own decisions” about whether to comply with U.S. and European sanctions aimed at cutting off trade with Iran.
The sanctions, adopted last summer, were designed to build enough economic pressure on Iran to persuade its leaders to limit its disputed nuclear program. The United States and many other countries believe the program is aimed at obtaining know-how to build nuclear weapons, while Iran insists it seeks only peaceful uses of nuclear energy.
Turkey is a major trading partner with its neighbor to the east, and its failure to comply with the sanctions is a major threat to their success. Turkey’s Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan said last month that his country wanted to triple its trade with Iran.
The Obama administration this week mounted a major effort to bring Turkey in line. The Treasury Department’s point man on Iran sanctions, Stuart Levey, visited Ankara on Wednesday to urge Turkish officials to cooperate in the sanctions effort, even as U.S. officials in Washington offered to broaden U.S.-Turkish trade ties.
Yet Babacan, a founding member of Turkey’s ruling Justice and Development party, said Turkish businesses would be unwise to break off ties to Iranian firms when many European, Chinese and Russian companies “are still doing quite a big business with Iran and finding open doors.”
Babacan, though acknowledging that the Iranian economy is coming under “more and more pressure,” said he still doubted whether Iran’s leadership — which had faced decades of sanctions — would fold. “It is very difficult to expect them to move just because they’re under pressure,” he said.
Turkey receives about one-third of its energy from Iran, and the two-way trade, valued at more than $10 billion, is especially important to impoverished areas along the border with Iran.
Despite the government’s attitude, the U.S. and European sanctions may have some bite, including for Turkish banks, which risk losing access to the U.S. market if they do business with companies that trade with Iran.
Turkish Trade Minister Zafer Caglayan complained this month about U.S. pressure on the banks, saying, “We cannot tolerate it.”
Meanwhile, the Obama administration is also trying to sharpen pressure on Chinese companies, whose behavior is the greatest threat to the sanctions. As other companies cut ties with Iran, Chinese firms appear to be snapping up energy, financial and arms business.
Philip Crowley, the chief State Department spokesman, said Monday the administration has given China the names of companies it suspects are violating sanctions rules, and have received promises that China will investigate.
Source: ctnow
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