Israel Matzav

Turkey would rather fight than switch

Turkey has met with Saudi Arabian representatives, and decided to continue to make Iran its primary oil supplier.

The sources said Ankara's intentions became clear after a high level delegation travelled to Riyadh over the weekend and decided against requesting additional supplies from top oil exporter Saudi Arabia, the only producer in the world that has spare volumes to offer to replace Iranian barrels. The development will help Iran avoid extra pain from reduced sales of crude as the European Union seeks to ban Iranian oil imports from July 1 and major Asian customers are signalling they might cut purchases under pressure from Washington.

EU and US sanctions against Iran over its nuclear plans are already hitting oil production in the Islamic Republic and a fall in its output and exports is likely to accelerate if more customers walk away from its oil. This could squeeze the budget and increase internal tensions ahead of parliamentary elections next month.

A Saudi oil ministry official said Turkish energy officials had not ask for additional oil when visiting Riyadh last week. "Turkey did not ask for more oil, and has no plans to ban imports from Iran," he said.

An Ankara-based energy official said: "Turkey will continue to buy from Iran unless the United Nations supports/endorses the EU and US oil embargo".

A UN embargo against Iran now seems very unlikely after Russia and China, the biggest buyer of Iranian crude, blocked UN sanctions against Syria. Turkey's long campaign for EU entry may now be less likely to influence its stance - its relations with the bloc are at their lowest point in years and negotiations on membership, which began in 2005, are stalled with no immediate prospect of resumption.

And as long as Barack Hussein Obama is President of the United States, no one will attempt to punish Turkey's actions. What could go wrong?

Labels: Iran sanctions regime, Saudi Arabia, Turkey

posted by Carl in Jerusalem @ 9:54 PM