US alone against Iran oil
The United States is losing the fight to impose an embargo on Iran oil. The generally cooperative European Union as well as Turkey and the rising Eastern powerhouses such as China and India have failed to stand alongside the U.S. in its plans to implement sanctions on the Islamic republic. "It is said there are some sanction decisions regarding oil imports taken by the EU and the U.S.," said Taner Yildiz, Turkey's energy minister, responding to a Hurriyet Daily News question at an energy meeting in Istanbul. "A United Nations decision would be binding for us," the minister said. "No other decision except the UN's would be binding for Turkey. "Tüpraş's operations and imports from Iran continue, and we have no changes in our road map as of today," said the minister. Turkey currently gets about 30 percent of its oil from its eastern neighbor. "Turkey does not feel it is bound by any sanctions taken unilaterally or as a group, other than those imposed by Chapter 7 of United Nations charter," Turkish Foreign Ministry Spokesman Selcuk Unal told a news conference in Ankara yesterday. Turkey would check the content of new US sanctions, he added.