Between November 5, 2018, and May 2, 2019, China, India, Turkey, South Korea, Japan, Taiwan, Italy, and Greece were allowed to import crude from Iran up to a limited amount.
, seeing Russia and China in every corner in international politics, expects the pressure policy that it engages in at the risk of alienating an actor such as Turkey to yield results.
Although the State Department had repeatedly said the opposite during the second 90-days, it provided a 180-days waiver to Iran’s eight largest customers– China, India, Turkey, South Korea, Japan, Taiwan, Italy and Greece - of crude oil to important up to a limited amount.
Most importantly, the United States has rejected to sell Patriot systems and air defense systems to Turkey for different reasons since 1990s and wanted to prevent Turkey from purchasing these systems from China and Russia.
It is obvious that the Trump administration, which adopts imperious discourse even against other great powers such as China and the EU, will not give credit to Iran’s usual counter-diplomacy tactics.
Under Erdoğan, relations with neighbouring Iran and nearby Russia improved greatly in spite of external actors attempting to prevent both whilst under Erdoğan, Turkey signed up to the international game changing Belt and Road initiative which was introduced by China in 2013.
, Europe, and China, Russia took the opportunity to provide Turkey with a deal that met all the Turkish conditions, adding favorable financing terms that were meant to sweeten the deal.