Turkish Energy Minister Taner Yildiz says Turkey will continue buying oil and natural gas from Iran despite US-engineered sanctions imposed against Iran's energy sector, Press TV reports.
In a press conference on Tuesday, Yildiz said that as a neighbor country which trades with Iran, Turkey believes the sanctions "will negatively affect natural gas and oil prices in the world."
"We will continue our natural gas purchase from Iran based on our contracts and there will be no change in this regard. As far as the oil is concerned, the decisions made by the United Nations will be abiding for Turkey, and before any UN decision, we will not change our stance on Iran's oil sector," Yildiz added.
On January 23, the European Union formally adopted an "unprecedented" oil embargo against Iran, banning all new oil contracts with the Islamic Republic.
The EU decision came days after US President Barack Obama signed into law new sanctions against Iran on December 31, 2011. The measures seek to penalize foreign institutions that do business with Iran's central bank and oil sector.
The Turkish minister said the decisions made by the US and the EU "does not concern us."
"Turkey's TUPRAS (the Turkish oil refiner) as the private sector will continue buying oil from Iran and the state-run BOTAS continues to buy natural gas from Iran," he said.
Yildiz had earlier in the day pointed to a dispute over gas prices with Iran and said that Turkey has "complained to an international arbitration court" over the prices of natural gas imported from Iran.
The Turkish minister said that Turkey from time to time reviews the price of natural gas it imports from different countries including Iran, Russia and Azerbaijan.