Renault to Stay in Iran Despite US Sanctions: CEO

French carmaker Renault will maintain its presence in Iran while taking measures to avoid the risk of penalties for breaching renewed US sanctions, CEO Carlos Ghosn said Friday.

"We will not abandon it, even if we have to downsize very strongly," he said at the annual shareholders' meeting in Paris.

"When the market reopens, the fact of having stayed will certainly give us an advantage," he predicted.

US President Donald Trump announced in May that he was pulling out of the hard-fought 2015 deal in which world powers offered Tehran sanctions relief in exchange for restraints on its nuclear program.

The US exit means renewed sanctions on the Islamic Republic, while international companies doing business there will face penalties if they do not quit the country in between 90 and 180 days. 

Companies including aircraft maker Boeing, French energy giant Total and Danish shipping group Maersk have announced plans to pull out, while Nike has stopped supplying Iran's football team with boots.

Renault's rival PSA, which produces the Peugeot and Citroen brands, has also announced it will quit Iran to abide by the US sanctions.

But Ghosn signaled that Renault, which counted 160,000 cars sold in Iran last year out of its total 3.76 million, would try to stay in the country.

"We have a future in Iran," he insisted.  "However, we are not going to do so to the detriment of Renault's interests—we will be watching closely to make sure our presence in Iran does not provoke direct or indirect reprisal measures on the part of American authorities."

Ghosn said a Renault team working on the issue was "in direct contact with the American administration to work out what can be done and what cannot be done".

The company has not sold its cars in the United States since abandoning the market in the 1980s.

Photo Credit: IRNA

French Carmaker PSA Says to Exit Iran Over US Sanction Risk

French automaker PSA said Monday that it would pull out of two joint ventures to sell its cars in Iran to avoid the risk of US sanctions after Washington withdrew from a key nuclear deal with Tehran.

"The group has begun to suspend its joint venture activities, in order to comply with US law by August 6, 2018," the maker of Peugeot and Citroen cars said in a statement.

European officials have vowed to try to shield their companies working in Iran from the reach of punishing US sanctions that are set to come into effect by November.

But with US President Donald Trump showing little inclination to spare EU companies, they must decide whether to continue to work in Iran if doing so puts their US operations at risk of huge fines.

PSA, Europe's second-biggest carmaker, signed deals with two Iranian automakers, Iran Khodro and Saipa, in 2016 after sanctions were lifted following the landmark 2015 accord aimed at prevent Tehran from developing nuclear weapons.

It was among several companies which rushed into Iran, hoping to meet pent-up demand in a country that had been squeezed by sanctions for years.

Last year PSA sold nearly 445,000 vehicles in Iran, making the country one of its biggest markets outside France.

Although it has been absent from the US market since 1991, the company said in January that it was hoping to launch a car-sharing service in one or two American cities.

But PSA, which also owns the Opel and Vauxhall brands, also noted that Iran sales still make up less than one percent of its total sales, and so exiting the country would not alter its financial guidance.

"With the support of the French government, Groupe PSA is engaging with the US authorities to consider a waiver," it said.

Yet the CEO of French oil giant Total, who was hoping to launch a major natural gas project in Iran, said last week that the chances of winning exemptions to the US sanctions were "very slim."

Photo Credit: IRNA