ANKARA: President Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Thursday said Turkey did not breach any US sanctions against Iran after a Turkish-Iranian gold trader admitted in a New York court to bribing a former minister.
Reza Zarrab told the court on Wednesday that he had bribed former economy minister Zafer Caglayan in order to facilitate illegal gold transactions with sanctions-hit Iran.
Earlier, Turkish Deputy Prime Minister Bekir Bozdag said Zarrab was making defamatory claims because he was under pressure.
Zarrab had initially been due to go on trial but is now the prosecution´s star witness.
Deputy chief executive of Turkish lender Halkbank Mehmet Hakan Atilla, accused of violating sanctions against Iran, as well as of bribery and money laundering, is now the lone man in the dock.
Analysts say that Zarrab´s revelations could prove embarrassing for the government while economists warn fines on one or more Turkish banks could prove harmful to the economy.
In his first comments since Zarrab´s testimony, Erdogan said Turkey had not broken the US embargo on Iran, according to state broadcaster TRT Haber.
“We did the right thing. We did not violate the embargo,” he told lawmakers from his ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP).
At any rate, he added, “no such commitment was made to the US.”
In an interview with state-run news agency Anadolu, Bozdag said “Zarrab has become a slanderer under pressure”.
The deputy prime minister repeated previous claims that US-based Fethullah Gulen, the alleged mastermind of the failed 2016 coup, and his network was behind the case.
