Daily Management Review

Le Maire: The US refused to release France from anti-Iran sanctions


07/13/2018


The United States rejected a request of Paris to release French companies operating in Iran from sanctions. This was stated by French Finance Minister Bruno Le Maire in an interview with Le Figaro.



EU2017EE via flickr
EU2017EE via flickr
Paris identified key areas where it expected either the release or the extension of activity curtailment periods for French companies, including energy, banking, pharmaceuticals and the automotive industry, Reuters reports.

Exemption from US sanctions is crucial for the work of the oil and gas giant Total over the multibillion-dollar gas project in Iran and for the joint venture of the automaker PSA Group in the Eastern country.

"We just received a reply from the US Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin: it's negative," Le Mair said in an interview with Le Figaro.

According to him, Europe must quickly react to Washington's actions and defend its economic sovereignty.

"Europe must provide itself with the tools necessary to protect against extraterritorial sanctions," the French minister said.

On May 8, US President Donald Trump said that the country leaves the international nuclear deal with Iran, and promised to restore sanctions against Tehran. Washington gave European companies conducting business in Iran 90 to 180 days to roll back investments; otherwise, firms would be at risk of secondary US sanctions.

The Trump administration, in particular, is putting pressure on its allies to reduce the import of oil from Iran to zero by November.

The European Commission in May decided to begin the process of applying the law, which prohibits European companies to comply with US sanctions against Iran and does not recognize any judicial decisions that ensure compliance with US sanctions. This measure is used for the first time in more than two decades.

Total’s CEO Patrick Pouyanné in June was pessimistic about the prospects for the energy giant in Iran in connection with US sanctions.

"There is no international company like Total that could work in any country with secondary sanctions, I do not have the right to do this, it's just the reality of the world," the head of the company said.

source: lefigaro.fr