"Iran's Lifeline" - Banks continue Turkey gold trade despite Iran link.

"Iran's Lifeline" - Banks continue Turkey gold trade despite Iran link.(AA).Banks are continuing to exchange gold in Turkey, despite U.S. pressure over the country’s booming gold-for-gas trade with Tehran, which helps Iran cope with international sanctions, bankers said on Tuesday. Gold exports from Turkey to Iran jumped to $6.5 billion in the first 11 months of 2012 from just $54 million for all of 2011, as the United States tightened sanctions over Iran’s disputed nuclear program.
Turkey is Iran’s biggest natural gas customer, but Western sanctions prevent it from paying Tehran in dollars or euros. Iran is instead paid in Turkish lira - of limited value on the international market but ideal for buying gold in Turkey.
While the shipments are not in breach of existing Western sanctions, they have helped Tehran to manage its finances despite being largely frozen out of the global banking system.
The U.S. State Department said in December that U.S. diplomats were in talks with Ankara over the flow of gold to Iran after the U.S. Senate approved expanded sanctions on global trade with Iran’s energy and shipping sectors in November that would also restrict trade in precious metals.
One senior U.S. official said at the time that the new sanctions, which have yet to take effect, would end “Turkey’s game of gold for natural gas.”
“We continue our business as usual,” a senior foreign banker said of his bank’s gold trading activities in Turkey, declining to be named because of the sensitivity of the issue.
“We’re always careful in transactions if we have doubts about the source of the money or the identity of the customer; however, we have not faced any extra ban with regard to gold transactions,” he said.
Washington says Tehran is enriching uranium to levels that could, with further enrichment, be used in nuclear weapons and believes gold sales to Iran have provided a financial lifeline to a government under the choke of sanctions.Hmmmm.....Who needs enemies with such 'allies'?Read the full story here.