Mojnews 14 April- Turkish Energy and Natural Resources Minister Taner Yildiz said Ankara has no intention of curtailing contacts with Iran in the energy sector.

Ankara will continue to import crude oil and natural gas from Iran in defiance of the Western sanctions against Teheran, Yildiz said.

Iran is one of the main providers of crude to Turkey, he said. Last year half of Turkey’s imported crude was Iranian. This year the parameter will be no lower than 40 percent.”

The Turkish minister said that a certain reduction of oil supplies from Teheran was in no way related with the Western countries’ sanctions against Teheran.

He also dismissed the speculations Ankara had taken that step under pressures from the United States.