Free Talk Live

The Wall Street Journal report calls the Turkish gold payments a “loophole in Western sanctions” which ban Iran from receiving payments in US dollars, but it’s far more than that. A “loophole” at least operates within the framework of the policy. Abandoning the US dollar to circumvent the entire policy is a thumb in the eye to US legitimacy, and the global banking system.

Turkey’s Deputy Prime Minister and top economic policy maker Ali Babacan confirmed the trade deal with Iran to the parliamentary budget committee today. In the last nine months Turkey has exchanged $6.4 billion of gold for several million tons of Iranian crude oil, tripling Turkey’s pre-sanctions exports to Iran.