TEHRAN – One of the world’s biggest cargo shippers announced on Saturday itwas pulling out of Iran for fear of becoming entangled in US sanctions, andPresident Hassan Rouhani demanded that European countries to do more tooffset the US measures.
The announcement by France’s CMA CGM that it was quitting Iran deals a blowto Tehran’s efforts to persuade European countries to keep their companiesoperating in Iran despite the threat of new American sanctions.
Iran says it needs more help from Europe to keep alive an agreement withworld powers to curb its nuclear programme. US President Donald Trumpabandoned the agreement in May and has announced new sanctions on Tehran.Washington has ordered all countries to stop buying Iranian oil by Novemberand foreign firms to stop doing business there or face US blacklists.
European powers which still support the nuclear deal say they will do moreto encourage their businesses to remain engaged with Iran. But the prospectof being banned in the United States appears to be enough to persuadeEuropean companies to keep out.
Foreign ministers from the five remaining signatory countries to thenuclear deal — Britain, France, Germany, China and Russia — offered apackage of economic measures to Iran on Friday but Tehran said they did notgo far enough.
“European countries have the political will to maintain economic ties withIran based on the JCPOA (the nuclear deal), but they need to take practicalmeasures within the time limit,” Rouhani said on Saturday on his officialwebsite.
*”WE APPLY THE RULES”*
CMA CGM, which according to the United Nations operates the world’s thirdlargest container shipping fleet with more than 11% of global capacity,said it would halt service for Iran as it did not want to fall foul of therules, given its large presence in the United States.
“Due to the Trump administration, we have decided to end our service forIran,” CMA CGM chief Rodolphe Saade said during an economic conference inthe southern French city of Aix-en-Provence.
“Our Chinese competitors are hesitating a little, so maybe they have adifferent relationship with Trump, but we apply the rules,” Saade said.
The shipping market leader, A.P. Moller-Maersk of Denmark, alreadyannounced in May it was pulling out of Iran.
In June, French carmaker PSA Group suspended its joint venture activitiesin Iran, and French oil major Total said it held little hope of receiving aUS waiver to continue with a multibillion-dollar gas project in the country.
Total’s CEO Patrick Pouyanne said on Saturday the company had been leftwith little choice.
“If we continued to work in Iran, Total would not be able to access the USfinancial world,” he told RTL radio. “Our duty is to protect the company.So we have to leave Iran.”
Iranian Oil Minister Bijan Zanganeh called the tension between Tehran andWashington a “trade war”. He said it had not led to changes in Iranian oilproduction and exports.
He also echoed Rouhani’s remarks that the European package did not meet alleconomic demands of Iran.
“I have not seen the package personally, but our colleagues in the foreignministry who have seen it were not happy with its details,” Zanganeh wasquoted as saying by Tasnim news agency.
Some Iranian officials have threatened to block oil exports from the Gulfin retaliation for US efforts to reduce Iranian oil sales to zero. Rouhanihimself made a veiled threat along those lines in recent days, saying therecould be no oil exports from the region if Iran’s were shut.