Turkey's foreign minister objected to demands from President Donald Trump's administration that it slash imports of Iranian petroleum products in six months, arguing that the time frame is too tight given his country's reliance on its neighbor for energy supplies.
"I cannot diversify my energy sources in six months or two years," Mevlut Cavusoglu said at a briefing in Washington after meeting with U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo.
Turkey was among the eight governments that got U.S. waivers to keep importing Iranian oil even after the Trump administration imposed punishing sanctions on the Iran energy and banking sectors as part of the decision to withdraw from the 2015 nuclear accord.
The U.S. is demanding those countries reduce imports by a significant amount by the time the 180-day review period ends for the first round of waivers -- though it hasn't said by how much.
Earlier this month, Turkey's energy minister said the U.S. exemption applies only to a quarter of Turkey's oil imports from the Islamic Republic, meaning it will need to cut its purchases of Iranian crude to about 3 million tons, compared with the 11.5 million tons it bought last year.
On Tuesday, the Treasury Department added a network of Russian and Iranian companies to its blacklist for shipping oil to Syria in violation of sanctions.
The network helps fuel the Syrian war effort of President Bashar Assad while providing revenue for Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps and the militant groups Hamas and Hezbollah, Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin said in announcing the sanctions.
Information for this article was contributed by Maria Danilova of The Associated Press.
A Section on 11/22/2018