PARIS: Most French companies hoping to keep doing business in Iran after the US imposes new sanctions on the country will find it impossible to do so, Finance Minister Bruno Le Maire said Tuesday.
These companies “won’t be able to stay because they need to be paid for the products they deliver to or build in Iran, and they cannot be paid because there is no sovereign and autonomous European financial institution” capable of shielding them, Le Maire told BFM television.
The new sanctions announced by US President Donald Trump in May after he pulled out of a 2015 nuclear deal with Tehran would punish any foreign firm operating in Iran which also does business with the US or in dollars.
“Our priority is to build independent, sovereign European financial institutions which would allow financing channels between French, Italian, German, Spanish and any other countries on the planet,” Le Maire said.
“It’s up to us Europeans to choose freely and with sovereign power who we want to do business with,” he added.
“The United States should not be the planet’s economic policeman.”
Le Maire and his EU counterparts have been trying to secure exemptions for their firms, many of which rushed back into Iran after the landmark accord curtailing Tehran’s nuclear program.
But French oil group Total and carmaker PSA have already indicated they are unlikely to stay in the country, while Renault has said it will remain despite the sanctions — though it does not sell its cars in the US.
Analysts have warned it would be nearly impossible to protect multinationals from the reach of the “extraterritorial” US measures, given the exposure of large banks to the US financial system and dollar transactions.
The first round of the new sanctions, targeting Iran’s auto and civil aviation sectors, are scheduled to go into effect on August 6.
Most French firms ‘won’t be able to stay’ in Iran: France’s finance minister
Most French firms ‘won’t be able to stay’ in Iran: France’s finance minister
Aid agencies in South Sudan decry restricted access as government and opposition troops fight
- The World Food Program, a Rome-based UN agency, has warned that escalating violence threatens to cut off food assistance to hundreds of thousands of people
JUBA, South Sudan: Humanitarian organizations in South Sudan said Monday that restricted access to the conflict-hit eastern state of Jonglei has left thousands of people in need of lifesaving medical care and food assistance at risk, as the United Nations raises concern over a growing number of displaced people.
The International Rescue Committee’s country director for South Sudan, Richard Orengo, said that “intensified fighting and the militarization of key areas have forced the suspension of services.”
Medical organization Doctors Without Borders, also known by its French name Médecins Sans Frontières, or MSF, said that the government has suspended all humanitarian flights, cutting off medical supplies, staff movement and emergency evacuations. At least 23 critically ill patients, including children and pregnant women, urgently require evacuation, MSF said.
The World Food Program, a Rome-based UN agency, has warned that escalating violence threatens to cut off food assistance to hundreds of thousands of people, as nearly 60 percent of Jonglei’s population is expected to face crisis-level hunger during the upcoming rainy season. The rains typically cut off access roads, and the violence has prevented the early delivery of aid.
Civilians are bearing the brunt of the escalating fighting in South Sudan’s Jonglei State, which is pushing one of the country’s most fragile regions toward collapse and raising fears of a slide back into full-scale war after an eight-year peace deal, the United Nations and aid groups said.
Homes have been destroyed, civilians killed in the crossfire, and families repeatedly forced to flee as fighting between government forces and opposition fighters loyal to the Sudan People’s Liberation Army–In Opposition, or SPLA-IO, spreads.
Forces loyal to opposition leader Riek Machar, alongside allied “White Army” fighters, have recently made gains against government troops.
The UN and human rights groups have also expressed alarm over inflammatory rhetoric by a senior army commander, who urged troops advancing in Jonglei to “spare no lives.”
The UN Commission on Human Rights in South Sudan expressed “grave alarm” at developments that it said “significantly heighten the risk of mass violence against civilians.”
The opposition said that the commander’s words were an “early indicator of genocidal intent.”
Speaking to The Associated Press, government spokesman Ateny Wek Ateny called the comments “uncalled for” and “a slip of the tongue.”
UN Secretary-General António Guterres has called on all parties to halt the fighting, protect civilians and ensure safe humanitarian access, saying that South Sudan’s crisis requires a political, not military, solution.
The renewed clashes have displaced more than 230,000 people since December, according to the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, or OCHA.
The renewed conflict has placed South Sudan’s fragile 2018 peace agreement under severe strain and intensified political tensions before the country’s first general election scheduled for December.
