Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has slammed the new US economic sanctions on Iran, saying that Turkey will not abide as they are aimed at unbalancing the world.
“US sanctions on Iran are wrong. For us, they are steps aimed at unbalancing the world; we don’t want to live in an imperialist world,” Erdogan told reporters on Tuesday after addressing ruling party MPs at the parliament in the capital, Ankara.
His comments come after Washington this week imposed a second set of sanctions on Iran that aim to isolate the country’s banking sector and slash its oil exports.
Eight countries including Turkey – a NATO member – have received a US waiver to continue importing Iranian oil without consequences.
According to Turkish Daily Sabah, Erdogan said that Turkey imports about 10 billion cubic metres of natural gas from Iran.
According to the data from the Energy Market Regulatory Authority’s (EMRA) Natural Gas Market Report for December 2017, about one-fifth of Turkey’s natural gas exports come from Iran.