Turkey's Erdogan says bilateral legal accords with U.S. losing validity

Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan on Friday warned that bilateral legal accords with the United States were “losing validity”, lashing out at Washington over the conviction of a Turkish banker in a U.S. trial, Reuters reported.

A jury in a U.S. federal court on Wednesday convicted an executive of Turkey’s majority state-owned Halkbank for evading Iran sanctions in a case Erdogan has cast as a political attack against his government.

“If this is the U.S. understanding of justice, then the world is doomed,” Erdogan told a news conference before his departure to France for an official visit, in his first public comments since the verdict. “The United States should excuse us, but the laws in our bilateral ties and the bilateral accords between us are losing their validity. I am saddened to say this, but this is how it will be from now on.”

He did not say to which accords he was referring.