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Erdogan Defies Trump Over Iran Sanctions

Dorian Jones

   ISTANBUL - Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Friday continued
   to chart a collision course with Washington over Iran. Erdogan is
   categorically ruling out enforcing American sanctions intended to put
   Iran in an economic straitjacket.

   "It is impossible for us to cancel relations with Iran with regard to
   oil and natural gas. We will continue to buy our natural gas from
   there," Erdogan said to reporters Friday, while returning from the
   United Nations General Assembly. Turkey is Iran's second-largest
   importer of natural gas.

   "The importance [of] this announcement is economic," said Iran expert
   Jamshid Assadi of France's Burgundy Business School. "Any income in
   Tehran's situation is very welcome by the regime, which is increasingly
   starved of funds."

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