Maersk says US sanctions make doing business in Iran impossible

The world’s largest container shipping firm A.P. Moller-Maersk said Thursday it would shut down its business in Iran to abide with re-imposed sanctions after Washington pulled the United States from a nuclear accord.

“With the sanctions the Americans are to impose, you can’t do business in Iran if you also have business in the US, and we have that on a large scale,” Soren Skou told Reuters in an interview following the firm’s first-quarter report.

“I don’t know the exact timing details, but I am certain that we’re also going to shut down (in Iran)”.

The move comes one day after French energy giant Total joined other European companies in signaling they could exit Iran, casting doubt on whether European leaders meeting to try to salvage the Iran nuclear deal can safeguard trade with Tehran.

President Donald Trump’s withdrawal of the United States from the nuclear accord and his order that sanctions be re-imposed on Tehran have left European allies scrambling to keep the deal alive and protect their Iranian trade.

French President Emmanuel Macron said on Thursday that the European Union must protect EU companies doing business with Iran from US sanctions.