France vows to fight

US SANCTIONS: EUROPEAN COUNTRY SEEKS WAIVERS FOR BIG COMPANIES

New bans come after Trump withdrew from Iran nuclear deal.

Paris

France pledged yesterday to push back against the threat of US sanctions against French companies doing business with Iran, in the wake of Washington’s withdrawal from the international nuclear agreement with Tehran.

The French government is seeking waivers and longer transition periods from the US for companies like Renault and Total, Finance Minister Bruno Le Maire said, while pressing for European Union measures to improve the bloc’s “economic sovereignty” in the longer term.

“It’s time that European countries opened their eyes,” Le Maire said on Europe 1 radio.

President Donald Trump’s decision to withdraw from the 2015 nuclear deal risks exposing European countries that have since invested in Iran to renewed US sanctions after “wind-down” periods of three to six months expire.

Europe needs new “financial instruments allowing it to be independent from the United States”, Le Maire said.

Germany plans to offer legal advice to help its firms continue to do business in Iran, Economy Minister Peter Altmaier also said.

France and Germany are among EU countries that had drawn up euro-denominated Iran export finance programmes to resist US sanctions. But the severity of Washington’s stance has raised doubts about their viability.

Turkey’s President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin agreed it was “wrong” for the US to withdraw from the Iran nuclear deal. – Reuters, AFP