'Advanced Islamist Democracy' Turkey, the 'Lifeline' of Iran thanks to Obama 'admin' inaction?

'Advanced Islamist Democracy' Turkey, the 'Lifeline' of Iran thanks to Obama 'admin' inaction? (Foundation for Defense of Democracies).

Jonathan Schanzer April 22, 2015.

Between 2012 and 2013, Turkey was purchasing Iranian natural gas in Turkish lira and transferring the proceeds to Halkbank accounts that Iranian gold traders used to buy gold in Turkey. The gold was subsequently shipped off to Dubai and then Iran.

At the time, Turkey’s Deputy Prime Minister Ali Babacan unabashedly explained that his country’s gold exports to Iran worked like “payments for our natural gas purchases.”

From Turkey’s perspective, there was no reason to hide the arrangement. The sale of gold was technically legal because the sales were going to individuals, not the government of Iran. And trade with individuals was not, at the time, in violation of sanctions.

Still, once the scheme was discovered, 47 members of Congress demanded an explanation from Secretary of State John Kerry and Secretary of the Treasury Jack Lew.

The Obama administration and Congress adopted new legislation in January 2013 imposing a blanket prohibition on all gold sales to Iran. Inexplicably, however, the administration did not make the prohibition effective immediately; the sanctions only became effective six months later, on July 1, 2013.

By forestalling the imposition of the sanctions, the White House granted Turkey and Iran additional months of trading opportunities. According to a report by FDD’s executive director Mark Dubowitz and our colleagues at Roubini Global Economics, “Iran’s Golden Loophole” allowed Tehran to receive over $13 billion before “gas-for-gold” slowed to a trickle.

A massive corruption scandal that erupted last year suggests that Turkish government figures were involved in yet another massive scheme that processed an additional €87 billion in illicit transactions. The Turkish government has quashed all investigations into this scheme, which included gold traders in Istanbul, UAE money traders, Iranian and Chinese banks, and an astounding list of high-level officials.

However, Turkey’s illicit financial activity does not end there.

Ankara’s desire to bring down the Assad regime in Syria has led to inexcusable policies that have enabled the growth of jihadist groups like Jabhat al-Nusra (JN) and the Islamic State (IS). Hmmm...........Hussein Obama's BFF Erdogan.Read the full report here.