Turkey will not abide by the United States' sanctions on Iran, President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan said on Tuesday, describing Washington's move as aimed at unbalancing the world.
Erdoğan's comments to reporters in Ankara came a day after Washington reimposed sanctions, abandoning a 2015 deal between world powers and Iran over its nuclear programme, while temporarily allowing major customers including Turkey to keep buying crude from the Islamic Republic.
Erdoğan stressed that the U.S. sanctions on Iran contradict with the international law and diplomacy.
"We don't want to live in an imperialist world," he added.
Washington announced new sanctions on Monday targeting Iran's energy and financial sectors along with its shipping industry.
More than 700 individuals, entities, aircraft, and vessels were blacklisted, including 50 Iranian banks and their domestic and foreign subsidiaries.
The U.S. government granted China, Greece, India, Turkey, Italy, Japan, South Korea and Taiwan a 180-day waiver for importing Iranian oil, which eased worries of supply reduction in the global markets after the sanctions went into effect.
Turkey has made historic success against terror groups under our rule, the Turkish president said Tuesday.
Erdoğan also criticized the U.S. patrols which began in northeastern Syria on Monday.
"It is impossible that we accept these [patrols]. Furthermore, such a situation would lead to serious negativity along the borders," said Erdoğan.
The patrols come after the Turkish military shelled several PKK/YPG positions in the region last week. The YPG is the Syrian branch of the PKK terror group.
'TURKEY GAINS HISTORICAL RESULT AGAINST TERRORISM'
"Turkey has gained historic results against terror groups, gangs and drug dealers, and any other action targeting peace in our term [since 2002]," Erdoğan said, in an address to his Justice and Development (AK) Party's parliamentary group.
The AK Party won the November 2002 election with two-thirds of the seats in parliament. It became the first party to win an outright majority in over a decade.
To date 2,000 people have been arrested, 7,000 others deported and around 70,000 people denied entry to Turkey over their links to the Daesh terror group, Erdoğan said.
"[They include] 761 terrorists in the country, 1,092 in northern Iraq, 3,000 in Operation Euphrates Shield, and over 4,500 in Operation Olive Branch were neutralized in the operations since July 2016," he said.
Launched in 2016, Turkey's Operation Euphrates Shield saw Turkish troops -- backed by the Free Syrian Army -- liberate large swathes of northwestern Syria from terrorist groups.
On Jan. 20, Turkey launched Operation Olive Branch to free northwestern Syrian city of Afrin of YPG/PKK and Daesh terrorists. On March 18, Turkish troops and the Free Syrian Army liberated the Afrin city center.
In its more than 30-year terror campaign against Turkey, the PKK -- listed as a terrorist organization by Turkey, the U.S. and the EU -- has been responsible for the death of some 40,000 people, including those of women and children. The YPG is its Syrian branch.
