Turkey stopped importing Iranian oil as of May as US waivers granted last year expire at the end of this month.
Ankara is replacing Iranian oil with supplies from Iraq, Russia and Kazakhstan, Turkish media reports.
As US government waivers granted last November to eight buyers including China and India expired this month, no Turkish ports received any Iranian oil, Reuters reported on Monday based on Refinitiv tracking data.
A Turkish official, who did not disclose his identity, told Reuters that they are not getting any oil from Iran now.
“We were one of the eight countries getting an exception from those sanctions, and now we are ready to abide by them,” said the official.
Washington pulled out of a 2015 nuclear accord between Tehran and six other big powers and reimposed sanctions on Iran last November. Turkey and Brazil’s governments had a big role to bring Iran and other states to the same table and Ankara built strong relations with Tehran during the last years despite the disagreement in Syria.
According to tanker data and industry sources, Iranian crude oil exports have fallen in May to 500,000 barrels per day (bpd) or even lower.
Tupras, Turkey’s largest oil refiner had requested from Washington for an extension of the import waiver before the May 1 expiration, but US authorities had not responded positively.
The Turkish company has however made clear it would halt all imports from Iran.
“We don’t believe in sanctions, but as a strategical ally, we respect the US decision…We don’t believe isolation of Iran will be helpful,” Reuters quoted the senior Turkish.
US President Donald Trump harshly criticized the Tehran government for threatening the security in the region and deployed more military forces to the Middle East, including an aircraft carrier, B-52 bombers, and Patriot missiles.
Turkey slams US threat to stop waivers on importing Iranian crude oil
The post Turkey bows to US pressure and cuts Iran oil imports appeared first on IPA NEWS.
from IPA NEWS https://ipa.news/2019/05/24/turkey-bows-to-us-pressure-and-cuts-iran-oil-imports/
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