Turkey, Iran eye closer financial transfers
3:16pm EST
* Turkish banks, Tupras on the spotlight
* Ankara, Tehran eye $30 bln annual trade by 2015
By Tulay Karadeniz
ANKARA, Jan 19 (Reuters) - Turkey and Iran said on
Thursday they want to increase financial transfers between the
two countries and double bilateral trade by 2015, a move likely
to trouble Western powers trying to squeeze Tehran with
sanctions over its nuclear programme.
Washington, which has approved a fresh set of sanctions
targeting financial institutions that deal with Iran's central
bank to stem the flow of oil revenues, has warned regional ally
Turkey that banks which do business with Iranian entities run
the risk of being frozen out of the U.S. financial system.
"Iran is the world's third biggest producer of oil, and the
world's second biggest producer of natural gas. The target is to
make Turkey a bridge for the transfer of these resources,"
Turkey's Urbanization Minister Erdogan Bayraktar, said in
closing statements at a Turkey-Iran economic council in Ankara.
"We have discussed working on money transfer between the two
countries. Work is under way for Turkey entering the Iranian
banking system and Iran entering the Turkish banking system. We
plan very important steps on money transfer," Bayraktar said.
Iran's Foreign Minister Ali Akbar Salehi, who attended the
meetings, said annual trade volume between the two would
increase to $30 billion by 2015, from around $15 billion last
year.
"We decided to improve the ties between the countries. The
governments will be working on easing the processes," Salehi
said. "We decided that Iranian private sector should invest in
power projects in Turkish energy markets." (Meanwhile US & EU is hoping for sanctions. The EU sanctions package includes a freeze on European assets belonging to
the Central Bank of Iran, with loopholes to allow non-oil trade to
continue. Britain is also pushing for a partial asset freeze on an
Iranian private bank. Iran – which already faces US sanctions on the global financing on
its oil trade, effective in June – focused its attentions yesterday on
trying to persuade Gulf Arab states not to co-operate with the western
isolation campaign.)
NATO member Turkey has increased economic and political ties
with fellow Muslim neighbour Iran in the decade since Turkish
Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan came to power at the head of a
party whose roots lie in political Islam.
New U.S. sanctions aimed at preventing Iran from pursuing
its nuclear programme have put some Turkish banks and refineries
in the spotlight.
Turkey is heavily dependent on imports of oil and gas from
Iran and opposed the imposition of U.N. sanctions on Tehran in
2010, although it says it is abiding by those measures.
Tupras, Turkey's biggest crude oil importer, is a
big buyer of Iranian crude, while Turkish lender Halkbank
, which is 75-percent state owned, has gained a
reputation in the oil market over the past 18 months for
handling trade deals with Iran for third countries.
Turkish officials say there is no obligation for Turkey to
enforce tougher unilateral sanctions subsequently announced by
the United States and European Union.
Keen to enhance its influence in a region once largely ruled
from Istanbul under the Ottoman empire, Turkey under Erdogan has
sought to balance long-standing good relations with Washington,
Israel and its EU neighbours with stronger trade and diplomatic
ties to the Arab world and the rest of the Middle East. And RUSSIA: Russia, which has weapons contracts with Syria worth
$5 billion, is increasingly resisting international pressure to punish
its ally. Yesterday it did not deny a report of a recent arms shipment.Not only will Russia veto any sanctions put before the http://www.csmonitor.com/tags/topic/Uni ... ty+Council" target="_self" class="inform_link">United Nations Security Council,
where it is one of five veto-wielding members, it also looks set to
continue supplying billions of dollars worth of Russian arms that Syria
has contracted to buy. And it will not halt friendly Russian gestures
toward the regime of http://www.csmonitor.com/tags/topic/Bashar+Assad" target="_self" class="inform_link">Bashar al-Assad, such as this month's visit of Russia's only operational aircraft carrier to the Syrian port of Tartous.