Iran and Turkey signed a number of deals on Wednesday to facilitate the efficient flow of gas through Turkey to Europe, including accords on allocating some of Iran's South Pars gas field to the Turkish Petroleum Corporation (TPAO), allowing Iranian gas to be transported via Turkey and allowing Turkmenistan's natural gas to be pumped to Turkey via Iran.
Ian Kelly, spokesperson for the US State Department, during a daily press briefing on Thursday, was reminded of the agreements between Iran and Turkey and was asked whether he had any “reaction” on the issue.
“We don't dispute the right of Iran to a peaceful nuclear energy program. What Iran has to do, though, is respond to the very real and legitimate concerns about the international community about the nature of that program,” Kelly responded. “I don't have any information about the visit of Prime Minister Erdoğan, however.” When insisted whether his remarks meant to support the agreements between Iran and Turkey, Kelly said: “This is a -- it's a bilateral issue between the two countries. Our position ... is clear that Iran has to do more to make their program more transparent.”
Yet, Kelly was again reminded of the fact that the US was talking about sanctions against those dealing with Iran or Iranian companies and asked whether the US State Department has been supporting the energy deals between Iran and Turkey which amounts to billions of dollars.
“Our approach is a two-track approach. On the one hand, we're -- we indicated a willingness to engage with Iran, to talk to Iran, try and come up with an approach that will meet the needs of the international community and will meet Iran's needs, humanitarian needs. And at the same time, we are also looking at what we call the pressure track, and that there are a number of options of what we have available to us under this pressure track. I think that we're pursuing the engagement track, but we are just keeping our options open, and I'm just not going to get into the details of what those options are,” Kelly said in response.
At the US Department of Defense on the same day, Pentagon Press Secretary Geoff Morrell was asked whether the US military wing had any problems with the deals signed between Iran and Turkey. “Turkey and Iran's relations, I don't have anything for you. I'm sorry,” he just said. The deals with Iran came ahead of Erdoğan's visit to US on Dec. 7. A White House statement on Thursday said that Obama looks forward to discussing a broad range of issues with Erdoğan, including the Middle East, non-proliferation, Iraq, strategies for Afghanistan and Pakistan and human rights.
