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DUBAI, United Arab Emirates, Aug. 19 (UPI) -- Amid a welter of international intrigue and big-stick diplomacy, Iran has been dodging international sanctions again.

Energy-hungry India, which gets 18 percent of its oil from Iran, has resumed oil payments to Tehran through a state-owned Turkish bank after remittances were cut off in December due to sanctions imposed by the United Nations in June 2010 over Iran's nuclear program.

New Delhi owes Tehran some $5 billion, although it's not clear how long the arrangement with Turkey's Halkbank will survive.

"There is speculation that the United States will pressure Turkey to close the Halkbank window to Iran, as it pressed the Reserve Bank of India before," observed Asian analyst Robert M. Cutler of Canada's Carlton University.

"However, there's good reason to suppose that Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan is pleased at the opportunity that this presents to install another instrument of potential control over Tehran."

The sanctions have blocked similar payments from South Korea, a key U.S. ally in Asia and one of the top buyers of Iranian crude that total around $3.82 billion and could hit $4.76 billion by the end of the year.

In the meantime, Iran, seeking ways to beat the sanctions, is talking to China, a permanent member of the U.N. Security Council, about using barter to sidestep the sanctions.

The Financial Times reports that becaus... >>>