Turkey Rules Out Following West's Decisions against Iran
News number: 9010173105 12:12 | 2012-01-31
http://english.farsnews.com/newstext.php?nn=9010173105

TEHRAN (FNA)- Turkey announced that it is not obliged to follow the West's
decision on imposing a ban on Iranian oil supplies.

"We are not bound by EU or US decisions," a Turkish Energy Ministry
spokesman was quoted by press tv as saying on Monday.

The remarks came after Turkish Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu ruled out
the possibility of Ankara complying with the West's unilateral sanctions
against Iran.

Davutoglu added that Turkey is currently trying to facilitate talks between
Tehran and Western nations on Iran's nuclear program.

India, China and Russia have also criticized ban on Iranian oil.

Earlier, India's Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee underlined New Delhi's
resolve to continue oil imports from Iran.

"It is not possible for India to take any decision to reduce the imports
from Iran drastically, because among the countries which can provide the
requirement of the emerging economies, Iran is an important one," Mukherjee
told reporters in Chicago at the end of a two-day visit.

India, the world's fourth-largest petroleum consumer, is Iran's second
largest oil customer after China and purchases around $12 billion worth of
Iranian crude every year, about 12 percent of its consumption.

Meantime, China made it clear that, whatever the commercial or political
calculations driving ups and downs in its crude orders from Iran, it rejects
in principle unilateral US sanctions.

"Iran is also an extremely big oil supplier to China, and we hope that
China's oil imports won't be affected, because this is needed for our
development," Chinese Vice Foreign Minister Zhai Jun told a news conference
in answer to a question about whether Beijing could curtail crude from Iran
under US pressure.

"We oppose applying pressure and sanctions, because these approaches won't
solve the problems. They never have," Zhai told the briefing about Wen's
six-day visit to Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates and Qatar.

"We hope that these unilateral sanctions will not affect China's interests."