DAILY SABAH
ISTANBUL
Published 5th November, 2018
It is not reasonable to expect countries like Turkey to forfeit their own interests to abide by United States sanctions on Iran, Vice President Fuat Oktay said Monday.
“It’s not meaningful or fair to expect all countries to obey (U.S.) sanctions upon a country’s interests,” Oktay said in a live interview with Anadolu Agency.
“We clearly expressed our stance about the U.S. sanctions. We’ll see results of a statement to be made today,” he added.
Turkish Trade Minister Ruhsar Pekcan said Saturday that Turkey has received initial indications that it will be among eight countries to be granted a waiver from U.S. sanctions against Iran, but is awaiting clarification on Monday.
Turkey imports almost nearly half of its oil needs from neighboring Iran.
The U.S. in August had re-imposed the first round of economic sanctions on Iran, which mainly target the country’s banking sector. The second phase of sanctions, targeting Iran’s energy sector, went into effect on Monday.
The vice president said foreign exchange, the U.S. dollar and domestic policies are being used as weapons in the economy in the current era.
Normalization process with U.S.
In regards to the normalization process with the United States, Turkey will start discussing the “real problems,” rather than artificial issues, Oktay said. “This is what allies do.”
He also mentioned U.S. pastor Andrew Brunson, who was sentenced on terror charges and returned to the U.S. in October having served his sentence.
“Turkey’s problem in relations with the U.S. were never about pastor Brunson,” he said.
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FILE PHOTO – Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan attends a news conference in Ankara, Turkey, August 14, 2018. REUTERS/Umit Bektas
If the Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman really did not order the murder, nor knew about it in advance, then we can understand that he will be totally ‘disappointed’ that his close friends think of him – the oh so liberal and modern Prince – to be capable of murder.