The Turkish Deputy Prime Minister Bekir Bozdag said the case against the trader, Reza Zarrab, who is accused of evading US sanctions on Iran was an “indisputable plot against Turkey” and it had no legal basis.
Speaking at the opening of the Justice and Development Party’s new office, the leader Bulent Turan said: “I would like to underline this, the man did exports.
He said: “A third country can’t interfere in trade between two countries.”
The Deputy Prime Minister said Mr Zarrab may have been threatened with retributions to sign off accusations.
And the Zarrab case is the latest dispute between Ankara and Washington, who disagree over US support for Kurdish fighters in Syria.
He is described by the US authorities as well-connected to senior members of the Turkish government.
Mr Bozdag said: “They want to impose certain sanctions on Turkey through the Zarrab case, but the trade between Iran and Turkey is in line with our laws and international laws.
Zarrab and eight other people, including executives of Turkish state-owned Halkbank, have been charged with engaging in transactions worth hundreds of millions of dollars for Iran’s government and Iranian entities rom 2010 to 2015 in a scheme to evade US sanctions.
They have denied the charges against them and the Turkish Government said the defendants acted within Turkish and international law.
The Turkish government has previously said the case is politically motivated and could have been instigated by supporters of the US-based Muslim cleric Fethullan Gulen.
US Attorney Kim Joon said: “Needless to say, those claims are ridiculous.
“They’re not Gulenists.”
Turkey blames Gulen’s network for last year’s failed military coup against President Teyyip Erdogan which saw more than 240 people killed.
Zarrab was arrested by the FBI in Miami in the US on March 19, 2016 and accused him of bank fraud, money laundering and helping the Iranian government evade the US economic sanctions on Iran to hinder its nuclear-weapons program.