Category: Iran

Turkey rejects West’s anti-Iran energy sanctions

Turkey’s Energy Minister Taner Yildiz says Ankara will not abide by the Western sanctions imposed against Tehran’s energy sector, stressing that Ankara will maintain its strong energy ties with Tehran.

“Turkey is not a member of the European Union (EU). Therefore, its decisions are not binding for us. Likewise, the decisions made by the US will not be binding,” Yildiz said at a Thursday news conference with South African Trade and Industry Minister Rob Davies in the Turkish capital city of Ankara.

Davies, for his part, voiced South Africa’s concern about the impact of the sanctions on the global oil prices and the global oil supply.

On the New Year’s Eve, the United States imposed new sanctions against Iran, aimed at preventing other countries from importing Iran’s oil and doing transactions with its central bank.

EU foreign ministers also approved sanctions against Iran on January 23, including a ban on Iranian oil imports, a freeze on the assets of the country’s Central Bank within EU states and a ban on selling diamonds, gold, and other precious metals to Tehran.

The United States, Israel and some of their allies accuse Tehran of pursuing military objectives in its nuclear program and have used this pretext to push for four rounds of UN sanctions and a series of unilateral sanctions against the Islamic Republic.

Iran has refuted the allegations, arguing that as a committed signatory to the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty and member of the International Atomic Energy Agency, it has the right to use nuclear technology for peaceful use.

via Turkey rejects West’s anti-Iran energy sanctions – Tehran Times.

February 18, 2012
Next Up: Turkey vs. Iran
OP-ED CONTRIBUTOR

By SONER CAGAPTAY

Published: February 14, 2012

Hardly a day goes by that an Iranian official doesn’t threaten Turkey. Take for instance Maj. Gen. Yahya Rahim Safavi’s recent warning to Ankara: “Turkey must radically rethink its policies on Syria, the NATO missile shield and promoting Muslim secularism in the Arab world, or face trouble from its own people and neighbors.”e

Related in News

Times Topics: Turkey | Syria |Iran

Related in Opinion

Op-Ed Contributor: Iran’s Achilles’ Heel (February 8, 2012)

This is no surprise. Turkish-Iranian rivalry goes back centuries, to the Ottoman sultans and the Safavid shahs. It briefly subsided in the 20th century, when Turkey became an inward-looking nation-state, leaving a vacuum in the Middle East. In the past decade, though, Turkey’s economic growth and emergence as a regional giant under the Justice and Development Party, or A.K.P., have revived its standing. From the Syrian uprising to Iraq’s sectarian convulsions to Iran’s push for nuclear power, Ankara is the main challenger to Tehran’s desire to dominate the region.

Following the A.K.P.’s ascent to power in 2002, the Turks were, initially, not interested in competition with the Iranians and relations between Ankara and Tehran seemed quite warm. Both countries defended the Palestinian cause. Ankara did not appear threatened by Iran’s nuclear project. High-level visits between the two governments became routine and trade boomed.

Meanwhile, shared objections to the Iraq War appeared to bind the Turks and the Iranians. Iran even stopped harboring rebels of the Kurdistan Workers’ Party, or P.K.K., which it had encouraged to attack Turkey because of Ankara’s pro-Western stance. After the Iraq War, Tehran began bombing the very P.K.K. camps it had earlier permitted on its territory, winning points with the Turks.

Then came the Arab Spring. The uprising in Syria put Ankara and Tehran at polar opposite ends of the regional and political spectrum. Given its democratic traditions, Turkey supported the revolution and sided with the protesters; authoritarian Iran continued its support for the Assad regime and backed his brutal crackdown on civilians.

The Syrian uprising has become a zero-sum game: Either Bashar al-Assad will win, or the demonstrators will triumph. Likewise, it has become a proxy war between Tehran and Ankara, in which there will be only one winner.

Hence, all is fair game now between Ankara and Tehran. Encouraged by Iran, Assad ignored Turkish advice to reform. Turkey is now supporting, hosting, and reportedly arming the Syrian opposition. Iran’s response has been to strike at Turkey by once again supporting the P.K.K., which has launched dozens of deadly attacks, killing more than 150 Turks since the summer of 2011.

Competition over Syria has also mobilized fault lines in Iraq, where Turkey and Iran have been supporting opposing camps. Since Iraq’s first democratic elections in 2005, Iran has supported the Shiite-backed Dawa party of Nuri Kamal al-Maliki, while Turkey has backed the secular pan-Iraqi movement of Ayad Allawi. Following months of contention after the 2010 elections, Maliki formed a government in Baghdad, scoring a victory for Tehran.

Maliki has cracked down on Ankara-backed factions, issuing an arrest warrant for Tariq al-Hashimi, Iraq’s vice president and leader of the country’s Sunni community. Hashimi has taken refuge in the Kurdish-controlled part of Iraq. The Kurds, who have until recently despised the Sunni Arabs for their persecution of the Kurds under Saddam Hussein, are now making amends. They are also closely aligning with Turkey to balance Iranian influence inside Iraq.

Turkish-Iranian rivalry in the Fertile Crescent has opened up a can of worms: Iranian leaders attack Turkey’s “secular Islam” and threaten to “strike Turkey” should Ankara act on its commitment to support NATO’s missile defense project by placing radars on its territory.

Turkey, anchored in NATO and oriented toward the Middle East, is a greater threat to Iranian interests than the merely pro-Western Turkey of a decade ago. There is a chance that Iran might become even more aggressive: Some analysts suggest that the Iranian Quds Force, the special-operations unit of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, might be connecting with the P.K.K. in northern Iraq to target both Turkey and the Iraqi Kurds.

Both countries are slowly showing their hands in the region’s oldest power game. In the Middle East, there is room for one shah or one sultan, but not both a shah and a sultan.

Soner Cagaptay is a senior fellow at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy.

A version of this op-ed appeared in print on February 15, 2012, in The International Herald Tribune.
February 15, 2012
Turkey to ignore Western sanctions on Iran

Turkey has no plans to cut its imports of Iranian oil despite rising pressure from Western powers and initial signals it would buy more Saudi oil, Turkish and Saudi sources have told Reuters.

Ankara’s intentions became clear after a high level delegation traveled to Riyadh over the weekend and decided against requesting additional supplies from top oil exporter Saudi Arabia, the sources said.

The Kingdom is the only producer in the world that has spare volumes to offer to replace Iranian oil.

The development will help Iran avoid extra pain from reduced sales of crude as the European Union seeks to ban Iranian oil imports from July 1.

US sanctions against Iran over its nuclear program have sought to curtail oil exports by targeting its central bank and preventing countries from paying for Iranian oil.

A Saudi oil ministry official said Turkish energy officials had not asked for additional oil when visiting Riyadh last week. “Turkey did not ask for more oil, and has no plans to ban imports from Iran,” he said.

An Ankara-based energy official said: “Turkey will continue to buy from Iran unless the United Nations supports/endorses the EU and US oil embargo.”

A UN embargo against Iran now seems very unlikely after Russia and China, the biggest buyer of Iranian crude, blocked UN sanctions against Syria.

Turkey imports around 200,000 barrels per day of oil from Iran, covering 30 percent of daily domestic consumption and representing over 7 percent of Iranian oil exports, and had renewed its annual purchase agreement for 2012.

Turkey follows China, India and Russia in suggesting they might ignore the sanctions and continue to trade with Tehran.

Without Asian cooperation, Western sanctions on Iran will have little effect as Iran’s top oil export destinations are Asia’s energy-hungry economies.

South Korea and Japan have indicated they are seeking to cut purchases to win waivers from US sanctions.

Last week, Sri Lanka announced it was seeking to avoid the sanctions by purchasing Iranian crude oil in a currency other than dollars.

US officials are said to be primarily concerned with transactions in dollars and this option may prove popular for countries seeking to avoid the sanctions.

NATO member Turkey has deepened economic and financial ties with Iran in recent years, despite Western efforts to isolate the country.

On a diplomatic level, Ankara often presents itself as a mediator in talks with the Islamic republic, which it sees as a balancing force in the region against Israel – the only nuclear power in the Middle East.

(Reuters, Al-Akhbar)

via Turkey to ignore Western sanctions on Iran | Al Akhbar English.

February 15, 2012
‘Turkey blocked Israel access to NATO intelligence’

In negotiations over missile defense system, Turkey demanded Israel would not gain data.

By Fars News / Reuters

Turkey went out of its way to ensure Israel had no access to data from the NATO-backed missile defense system to be built on its territory, the Turkish Today’s Zaman reported Monday.

According the report, “Turkey went to great lengths in protracted negotiations with the US to secure guarantees that the data to be collected by the system will not be shared with ally-turned-foe Israel and that Israel’s nemesis Iran will never be mentioned as a threat.”

n an interview with Today’s Zaman published Monday, NATO Secretary-General Anders Fogh Rasmussen said that Iranians need not worry about the missile defense system if they are not planning an attack.

“You can only consider our missile defense system a threat if you have an intention or an idea that you want to attack a NATO territory,” Rasmussen said.

Addressing the tense relationship between Turkey and Israel, Rasmussen said, “I hope that Turkey and Israel can find peaceful ways to settle this dispute, because Israel is actually a member of one of our partnerships, called the Mediterranean Dialogue. Israel is a valued partner and we need a positive relationship between a staunch ally and a valued partner.”

Rasmussen also said Iran’s threat to block the Strait of Hormuz was “in contradiction with Iran’s international obligations,” and that Russian cooperation on missile defense was lower than hoped.

www.jpost.com, 13.02.2012

February 14, 2012
‘Israel a bully on verge of global isolation’ – Israeli diplomat

“Turkish Foreign Policy Catastrophic”

‘Israel should put an end to pointedly hawkish political discourse towards Iran because a preemptive assault might cost it a loss of global legitimacy,’ – warns Elan Baruch, a former Israeli ambassador to South Africa.

RT talked to Mr. Baruch to discuss the position his country occupies on today’s worldwide political stage.

Uploaded by RussiaToday on 12 Feb 2012

February 13, 2012
Baku hub for Israelis spying on Iran: Report

Azeri President Ilham Aliyev (L) embraces Israeli President Shimon Peres.

“Our presence here is quiet, but substantial. We have increased our presence in the past year, and it gets us very close to Iran. This is a wonderfully porous country.”

Azerbaijan-based Israeli spy

An Israeli intelligence agent has reportedly admitted that Azerbaijan, Iran’s northwestern neighbor, is “teaming with” Mossad agents who are trying to collect intelligence on the Islamic Republic.

“This (Azerbaijan) is ground zero for intelligence work,” The Times of London quoted an Azerbaijan-based Israeli intelligence agent named “Shimon” as saying on Saturday.

“Our presence here is quiet, but substantial. We have increased our presence in the past year, and it gets us very close to Iran. This is a wonderfully porous country,” JPost quoted Shimon as saying.

Secret documents released by WikiLeaks last April revealed that Israel had been using the former Soviet republic’s soil over the past four years to spy on Iran.

The document in the US Embassy in Baku, sent to Washington in January 2009, refers to a visit by the Azeri president’s advisor for security and defense issues, Vahid Aliyev, to Israel.

According to the WikiLeaks cable, the trip was aimed at signing a contract with Tel Aviv which allowed Israel to use Azerbaijan’s soil for its spying activities against Iran. The US diplomatic cable further discloses an arms deal between the two sides.

According to the leaked cables, Azerbaijani authorities banned all anti-Israeli protest gatherings anywhere near Tel Aviv’s Embassy in Baku during the Israeli offensive against the Gaza Strip at the turn of 2009.

Prior to the leak, there were reports about the operations of Israeli spying cells on the Iranian-Azeri border under the cover of farming activities.

Separatist groups and members of the terrorist Mujahedin-e Khalq Organization are also freely operating within Azerbaijan’s borders.

www.presstv.com, Feb 12, 2012

February 13, 2012