US secondary sanctions ...
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What capacities and tools do Iran and Turkey have to mitigate the impact of secondary sanctions and preserve their economic and trade relations? Could monetary mechanisms, trade in national currencies and barter be used to reduce dependence on the US-controlled financial system?
Iran and Turkey have cooperated in the past and continue to do so. The geographical proximity of the two countries, their relatively close cultures and their historical ties have strengthened these interactions. Both during the Iran-Iraq War and afterward, Turkey has consistently tried to help Iran in some way when the country was under sanctions.
On the other hand, it should not be forgotten that Turkey does not have particularly strong financial infrastructure. For example, compared with Dubai, Turkey’s financial infrastructure is not sufficiently modern or advanced to effectively serve as an alternative to Dubai for Iran.
Another point is that Turkey is a NATO member and is part of the Western security system. Therefore, despite taking its neighborhood considerations into account in its relations with Iran, it tries to ensure that its ties with Iran and its other neighbors do not cause fundamental or serious damage to its relations with the West.
Based on the principle of strategic autonomy in its foreign policy, Turkey seeks to strike a balance between its neighborhood considerations and its relations with the West, and even its relations with Russia.
However, when tensions increase between Iran and Western countries, or between Russia and the West, Turkey generally cannot maintain this balance and is inevitably forced to make a choice. The same applies in this case.
Turkey, for example, has no desire to replace local currencies with the dollar and has so far shown little interest in doing so. Therefore, if Iran were to use Turkey to circumvent sanctions, it could damage Turkey’s longstanding relations with the West.
In this regard, Ankara has always sought to take a cautious approach, in a way that neither leaves Iran deeply dissatisfied nor angers the West.