Turkey rebuffs U.S. pressure to slash trade with Iran

"Ali Babacan, a Turkish deputy prime minister, told reporters in Washington on Wednesday that Turkish companies remained "free to make their own decisions" about whether to comply with U.S. and European sanctions aimed at cutting off trade with Iran....   The Obama administration this week mounted a major effort to bring Turkey in line. The Treasury Department's point man on Iran sanctions, Stuart Levey, visited Ankara, the Turkish capital, on Wednesday to urge Turkish officials to cooperate in the sanctions effort, even as American officials in Washington offered to broaden U.S.-Turkish trade ties. Yet Babacan, a founding member of Turkey's ruling Justice and Development Party, said Turkish businesses would be unwise to break off ties to Iranian firms when many European, Chinese and Russian companies "are still doing quite a big business with Iran and finding open doors." Babacan, though acknowledging that the Iranian economy is coming under "more and more pressure," said he doubted whether Iran's leadership, which had faced decades of sanctions, would fold...."