PARIS, May 11 (Xinhua) -- French Finance Minister Bruno Le Maire on Friday called on European partners to forge common measures to defend the bloc's "economic sovereignty" in response to the U.S. threat to punish companies doing business with Iran.
"It is urgent to move from words to action. We have to work among ourselves in Europe to defend our economic sovereignty," Le Maire said.
"Do we want the United States to be the world's economic police? Or do we Europeans say we have economic interests, we want to continue to trade with Iran as part of what we believe that this is the right way and therefore we continue," he told local broadcaster Europe1.
"It's time for all European states to open their eyes," he added, stressing that EU needs new "financial instruments allowing it to be independent from the United States."
To this aim, the French minister proposed reinforcing EU "blocking regulations" dating back to 1996, seeking more financial tools to improve independence from United States and creating the Office of Foreign Assets Control, which monitors activities of foreign companies and checks if they respect European decisions.
Earlier this week, U.S. President Donald Trump announced U.S. withdrawal from the 2015 Iran nuclear deal and re-imposition of sanctions on Tehran and those trading with it.
In the wake of Washington's decision, European firms doing business in Iran have up to six months to wind up investments, else they risk U.S. sanctions. They are also forbidden from signing any new contracts with the country.
Le Maire said he had called on U.S. Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin urging him to allow exceptions for French companies, including Total, Renault and Sanofi, or a delay in implementing the sanctions.
"At the end of May, I will meet with the British and German finance ministers and the three of us will look at what we can do," the French minister added.