Relevant authorities are working to prevent Turkey from being negatively impacted by U.S. sanctions against Iran, the Turkish foreign ministry said on Friday after a U.S. delegation held talks in Ankara on upcoming sanctions.

In a statement following a visit by a U.S. delegation of Treasury and State Department officials, the ministry said Iran was an important neighbor for Turkey and that Ankara would continue to monitor the U.S. sanctions within this framework.

The delegation visited Ankara after touring India.

President Donald Trump in May pulled the United States out of a 2015 nuclear pact with Iran and ordered tough sanctions on Tehran. Washington has also asked its allies to cut imports of Iranian oil by November, a senior State Department official said last month - a call which Ankara has publicly resisted.

However, the other signatories to the accord, namely Russia, China, the UK, France and Germany have strongly objected to the U.S. withdrawal and vowed to try to preserve the deal.

Washington has said it would be returning the sanctions in August and threatened the countries that maintain business with Iran despite the bans with “secondary sanctions.”

Late last month, Ankara said it remained determined to maintain trade ties with Iran. 

On Thursday, Britain’s Daily Express said South Korea would likely seek exemptions from Iran oil bans.

It cited Korean Foreign Minister Kang Kyung-wha as saying during a breakfast seminar at Chatham House in London that she hoped that the bans against Iran “could be circumvented.”

Meanwhile, Japan’s media reported that the country’s oil distributors were preparing to suspend imports of the Iranian crude oil.

Nikkei cited Japanese banks as saying that they had notified oil distributors that they would stop settling Iran-related transactions starting this summer “unless there is progress in government negotiations.”

SP/PA