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Washington, a senior US official said, confirming a report in the New York Times.
Despite being Nato allies, Turkey and the US are currently at loggerheads over opposing interests in Syria and Ankara’s plans to buy Russian missile defences. They are also on opposite sides when it comes to Trump’s sanctions assault on Iran, the US approach to solving the Palestinian question and the US-endorsed bid to topple the Maduro administration in Venezuela.
Iran, Turkey ‘to create’ joint sanctions-busting trading mechanism and possibly a bank. The Iranian Ambassador to Turkey, Mohammad Farazmand, said Iran and Turkey are to trade using a “new financial mechanism”, Mehr news agency reported on June 2. Several Iranian media outlets reported how the mechanism may ultimately take the form of a jointly operated bank that would help trading parties get around the US sanctions regime aimed at Tehran. Turkey recently closed its ports to Iranian oil after the US, at the start of May, announced it would no longer abide with any Iranian oil exported to any nation. Whether or not Iranian oil is still making its way to Iran on the grey market is another question. The Turks have previously claimed they have no clear alternative to Iranian gas, especially during winter. Their longer-term attitude to the attempted US oil and gas blockades might depend on progress made in resolving multiple disputes between Turkey and the US over foreign policy and defence issues. Farazmand said that it might initially be established in the form of a special purpose vehicle (SPV), which would pave the way for the formation of a formalised bank later on. The Iranian envoy added that both countries were partly looking to launch the bank to facilitate gas exports from Iran to Turkey. He reportedly said: “The US is carrying out economic terrorism besides sanctions on Iran which violates our countries’ rights.” Turkey's imports from Iran have dropped from a value of $12.5bn in 2011 to $7.5bn in 2017 and $6.9bn in 2018, according to Turkish statistics. The potential future bank will be music to the ears of Turkish real estate developers who covert direct Iranian investment in their country. According to Andalou Agency, some 300 Iranian nationals obtained Turkish citizenship under a “golden visa” scheme between last September and February this year. The scheme offers citizenship in exchange for a certain level of real estate investment. In September, the government cut the investment threshold from $1mn to $250,000.
The Muslim Brotherhood has close ties with Turkey’s AKP. It says it is an entirely peaceful organisation. The organisation stated on April 29 that it would continue to work in line with “our moderate and peaceful thinking” regardless of any moves by the Trump administration.
Erdogan also presently has following strong criticism by Ankara of Beijing’s treatment of the Turkic and Muslim Uyghur minority while in Sudan, President Omar al-Bashir, whom the Turkish president saw as an ally, was last week ousted in a coup d’etat. Turkey also risks having bet on the wrong side in the ongoing military struggle for control of Libya and Erdogan has thrown angry rhetoric the way of France lately after Paris decided to recognise the 1915 Turkish massacre of Armenians as genocide.
Riyadh governor turns down Turkish coffee in reminder of Khashoggi tensions. Faisal bin Bandar, the governor of Riyadh, was videod refusing to drink a famous brand of Turkish coffee in a fresh reminder of how relations between Saudi Arabia and Turkey remain torn with tensions over last October’s murder of Jamal Khashoggi still not resolved. Saudi Prince Abdullah bin Sultan al Saudi captioned it in a tweet with a call to boycott “goods from Turkey and even goods that have passed through Turkish customs”.
The Turkish Foreign Ministry on May 5 issued a statement calling on the international community to act on the “disproportionate actions” by Israel in Gaza, after Israeli air strikes hit a building where offices of Turkey’s Anadolu state news agency are located.
21 TURKEY Country Report June 2019 www.intellinews.com