'No need for Turkey to go along with US Iran sanctions'

By Tugcenur Yilmaz

BAKU (AA) - Turkey isn’t obliged to go along with sanctions imposed by the U.S. or Britain against Iran, said Turkey's foreign minister on Tuesday.

Mevlut Cavusoglu made the remarks while visiting Azerbaijan’s capital Baku at a joint press conference alongside Elmar Memmedyarov, his Azerbaijani counterpart.

Stressing that Turkey opposes the U.S. sanctions against Iran, Cavusoglu said: "We go along with UN sanctions like every country, but we do not necessarily need to go along with sanctions imposed by U.S. or U.K. against Iran."

Turkey also does not agree with the U.S. sanctions on Russia, he also said.

"We do not find those sanctions right. This is a principal stance. It does not depend on any other condition," he said.

U.S. officials met with Turkish companies on July 19 and with Turkish officials from the Foreign Ministry, Treasury and Central Bank on July 20 about the issue of a new round of sanctions against Iran.

Many Turkish companies are prime trade partners with Tehran.

The U.S. announcement in May that it would unilaterally withdraw from the Iran nuclear deal and re-impose sanctions has drawn criticism worldwide.