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July 26th, 2012 
FAKE NEWS for the Zionist agenda Such a move, amid the European sovereign debt crisis and plummeting auto sales across the continent, seems like it could only be a disastrous business decision. And it is.
Peugeot cannot easily replace the half-million vehicle sales Iran would have provided this year and, as a result, Peugeot recently announced 8,000 job cuts across France to compensate for the billions of euros they’ve lost.
The reason Peugeot gave for letting go of the Iranian market is that, “the strengthening of sanctions against Iran, notably in regards to relations between Iranian and Western banks, has made it impossible for us to receive payment for our exports.”
But there’s another key factor: In exchange for selling 7 percent of the company’s shares to General Motors, owned by the American government, the US insisted that Peugeot should stop selling cars to Iran.
Someone will have to explain to me how preventing Iranian drivers from using fuel-efficient hatchback cars affects nuclear energy research? Chalk this up as another sanction which is obviously aimed at squeezing the average Iranian.
Either way, inhumane and counter-productive sanctions are at the heart of Peugeot’s exit, and don’t think that many French people aren’t aware of this: Every major French media has run stories on the Iranian connection, so it’s not being hushed up.
Italian automaker Fiat, which took an ever larger share of US automaker Chrysler, announced in May that it would also halt sales to Iran.
But, let’s take a step back: The losers in Peugeot’s decisions are not Iranian drivers, shareholders of Peugeot or Fiat, or even France itself – the victims of the sanctions are the 8,000 now-unemployed auto workers, as well as those who worked at the thousands of secondary jobs associated with the Peugeot plants.
France as a whole isn’t losing, because the nation’s second-largest automaker, Renault, is already clamoring to take Peugeot’s place.
A spokesperson for Renault recently told the French newspaper “Le Point” that while they will “respect to the letter all the sanctions,” Renault is also keenly aware of the “attractiveness” of the Iranian market.
In 2011, Renault doubled its Iranian sales, as compared with 2010, to reach 93,578 vehicles and they’re looking for more now that a major competitor is out of the way.
Renault is 15 percent owned by the French state, so their dealings with Iran could be an interesting test case to see just how open-minded President Francois Hollande is: Will he continue the extremely hardline approach of Sarkozy – who was exceeded only by the US and Israel – or will he return France to the time of Jacques Chirac, who refused to be a pawn and go to war in Iraq?
But “Le Point” reported that, for now, Renault has decided that sales will continue via the joint venture Renault-Pars, which is 51 percent owned by Renault and 49 percent owned by the Industrial Development and Renovation Organization of Iran (IDRO).
And this is why Iran will not be negatively affected by Peugeot’s pullout: Iran will continue to partner with auto companies (French or South Korean or whoever) and continue to improve the quality of Iranian vehicles by importing car kits to be assembled in Iranian factories.
This economic protectionism has been so effective over recent decades that Iran now produces more cars than Italy or the UK, with Iran now the 12th-largest producer in the world.
Iranian auto production has doubled since 2005 to reach 1.6 million vehicles in 2011, and it is leaps ahead from 2000, when production was just 278,000 units.
And as Iranian engineering skill has increased, Iranian drivers are getting better cars, to which any average Iranian will attest. Compared with old English-based models like the Paykan, cars built on modern alliances have provided better, cleaner and more durable vehicles for Iranian consumers.
Hopefully, it’s just a matter of time before firms like Iran Khodro – the Middle East’s largest automaker – start exporting on an even larger scale to our neighbors in the Middle East and Far East.
After oil and gas, Iran’s auto industry is the second-most active, providing hundreds of thousands of jobs. That number will continue to grow, while Peugeot’s workforce is down by 8,000 as a result of deciding to follow unjust sanctions on Iran.
RM/GHN
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