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The Obama administration ultimately persuaded Congress to revise the bill to exempt Turkey and other countries that rely on Iran for natural gas, said Mark Dubowitz, a sanctions expert.
"There was intense pressure from Congress to hammer Iran on natural-gas exports," said Dubowitz, director of the Foundation for Defense of Democracies, a Washington think tank. The implicit understanding in granting relief for Turkey was that Istanbul would improve its enforcement of other sanctions provisions, such as halting gold-for-oil bartering with Iran, he said.
The topic was among several that came up during a visit to Washington last week by Feridun Sinirlioglu, the Turkish Foreign Ministry's undersecretary. After the meeting, State Department spokeswoman Victoria Nuland stressed the many areas of close coordination on foreign policy.
One of those, she said, was "the importance of international solidarity in Iran."
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