Turkey's Islamist Prime Minister Necmettin Erbakan knew he would pique the U.S. when for his first official trip abroad he chose Iran. Acting Secretary of State Peter Tarnoff telephoned Ankara to warn him that he was defying Washington's campaign to isolate Tehran for its sponsorship of international terrorism. Just a week before, President Clinton had signed with great fanfare a new sanctions bill to curb major investments in Iran and its fellow rogue state Libya. But Erbakan went to Tehran, and last week he upped the affront by endorsing a contract to buy $23 billion worth of Iranian gas.
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