Alwaght- President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said Turkey will continue to buy natural gas from Iran in line with its long-term supply contract ignoring US' threats to punish countries doing business with Iran.
“We need to be realistic ... Am I supposed to let people freeze in winter? ...Nobody should be offended. How can I heat my people’s homes if we stop purchasing Iran’s natural gas?,” President Erdogan said in an interview with Reuters late on Tuesday
In May, Trump pulled the US out of historic nuclear agreement, JCPOA, reached between Iran and six world powers-- China, Russia, UK, US, Germany, and France-- in 2015 under which Iran agreed to limit parts of its nuclear program in exchange for the removal of all nuclear-related sanctions.
The US exit from the Iran nuclear deal, and reimposing sanctions on the Islamic Republic in August, drove a wedge between the Trump administration and world community. US sanctions on Iran’s energy sector are set to be re-imposed in November.
However many countries, including China, Turkey, India and some EU countries, have announced they will not follow the US unilateral sanction on Tehran.
European Union foreign affairs chief Federica Mogherini announced on Monday remaining signatories to the Iran nuclear deal is working to establish a special payment channels to do business with Iran to salvage the deal after the US’ withdrawal.
According to a joint statement issued by the participants and read out by Mogherini and Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif, the meeting “took stock of the process of finding and operationalizing practical solutions for issues arising from the unilateral withdrawal of the US from the agreement and the re-imposition of the sanctions lifted under the JCPOA and its Annex II.”
On Wednesday, also, Reuters cited an unidentified Indian government source as saying that New Delhi has not told the country’s oil refiners to halt their imports of Iranian crude.
“We have good relations with Iran and the U.S. and our decision is not hinged on energy,” said the government source.
