Turkey foreign minister criticized Tuesday the US renewal of sanctions on Iran’s oil and shipping industries, saying it was dangerous to isolate Iran and unfair to punish its people, Anadolu news agency reported.

Mevlut Cavusoglu’s comments to reporters in Japan came a day after Washington reimposed sanctions, abandoning a 2015 deal between world powers and Iran, while temporarily allowing major customers including Turkey to keep buying crude from the Islamic Republic.

“We do not believe any result can be reached with sanctions. I think meaningful dialogue and talks are more useful than sanctions,” he said.

Cavusoglu also said it was not that easy for countries including Turkey and Japan to diversify energy resources to comply with the sanctions.

“Not only neighboring countries but many countries from many regions of the world are being impacted by these unilateral sanctions.”

Source: Agencies