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European Companies Continue to Withdraw from Iran

Daimler AG sign is pictured at the IAA truck show in Hanover, Germany. REUTERS/Fabian Bimmer
Daimler AG sign is pictured at the IAA truck show in Hanover, Germany. REUTERS/Fabian Bimmer
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European Companies Continue to Withdraw from Iran

Daimler AG sign is pictured at the IAA truck show in Hanover, Germany. REUTERS/Fabian Bimmer
Daimler AG sign is pictured at the IAA truck show in Hanover, Germany. REUTERS/Fabian Bimmer

Major companies have continued to withdraw from Iran despite the European Union’s announcement that the blocking statute entered into force on August 7, to protect EU companies doing legitimate business with Iran from the impact of US extra-territorial sanctions.

Germany's multinational automotive corporation, Daimler AG, said on Tuesday that it had suspended all activities in Iran in connection to the reimposition of US sanctions that target companies doing business with Iran.

"We have ceased our already restricted activities in Iran in accordance with the applicable sanctions", Daimler said in a statement.

“We will continue to closely monitor the political developments, especially in connection with the future of the nuclear agreement," it added.

Daimler's move put a sudden end to its plans to expand its activities Iran, where it had signed a cooperation agreement with two local companies to assemble Mercedes Benz trucks.

The company added that the Iranian economy and the country's automobile market were developing much weaker than expected, and Daimler AG had not managed to resume the sale of Mercedes-Benz cars and trucks in Iran.

Daimler had signed letters of intent with joint venture partners in Iran in January 2016 as part of the German truck maker’s re-entry into the Iranian market after economic sanctions were lifted under the 2015 international agreement that sought to limit the country's nuclear program.

Daimler confirmed in its statement that it has not yet started manufacturing or selling its trucks in Iran, nor is it selling any of its vehicles in the Iranian market.

The company’s withdrawal came few days after CEO Henrik Henriksson said Scania had canceled all orders that it could not deliver by mid August as anything after would have been hit by the new sanctions.

Scania was one of the first truck companies to return to Iran after the EU lifted sanctions in early 2016.

US President Donald Trump's May withdrawal from the 2015 nuclear deal led Washington to reimpose sanctions on Iran on Tuesday. The second tranche kicks in on November 5.

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World

UK Removes Duplicate Entries from Sanctions Lists, Designations Remain in Place

All affected individuals and entities remained subject to sanctions under other regimes - Reuters/File photo
All affected individuals and entities remained subject to sanctions under other regimes - Reuters/File photo
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UK Removes Duplicate Entries from Sanctions Lists, Designations Remain in Place

All affected individuals and entities remained subject to sanctions under other regimes - Reuters/File photo
All affected individuals and entities remained subject to sanctions under other regimes - Reuters/File photo

Britain removed duplicate entries from some of its sanctions lists on Wednesday, the government said in a notice, as it moves to consolidate its designations under a single authority, Reuters reported.

The update, which does no affect any restrictions already in place, eliminated four duplicate listings under the Syria sanctions regime and one under the Iran nuclear sanctions regime.

All affected individuals and entities remained subject to sanctions under other regimes, including Iran, Iran Nuclear or Chemical Weapons, according to the government notice.

World

Germany Warns against Jeopardizing Peace after Trump's Venezuela Tanker Blockade

A man pauses on a pedestrian bridge as a German flag flies over the Reichstag building in Berlin on October 23, 2024. (AFP)
A man pauses on a pedestrian bridge as a German flag flies over the Reichstag building in Berlin on October 23, 2024. (AFP)
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Germany Warns against Jeopardizing Peace after Trump's Venezuela Tanker Blockade

A man pauses on a pedestrian bridge as a German flag flies over the Reichstag building in Berlin on October 23, 2024. (AFP)
A man pauses on a pedestrian bridge as a German flag flies over the Reichstag building in Berlin on October 23, 2024. (AFP)

Germany has taken note of US President Donald Trump's order to blockade sanctioned oil tankers entering and leaving Venezuela and warned against any steps that would jeopardize peace and security in the region, said a foreign ministry spokesperson, Reuters reported.

"The German government has an interest in preventing the situation in the region from deteriorating further," he noted.

"We are therefore viewing the overall situation with concern," said the spokesperson at a government press conference on Wednesday.

World

Spanish Police Evict Hundreds of Migrants from Squat Deemed Safety Hazard

Migrants confront police as they begin carrying out eviction orders at an abandoned school building where hundreds of mostly undocumented migrants had been living, in Badalona, near Barcelona, Spain, Wednesday, Dec. 17, 2025. (AP Photo/Emilio Morenatti)
Migrants confront police as they begin carrying out eviction orders at an abandoned school building where hundreds of mostly undocumented migrants had been living, in Badalona, near Barcelona, Spain, Wednesday, Dec. 17, 2025. (AP Photo/Emilio Morenatti)
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Spanish Police Evict Hundreds of Migrants from Squat Deemed Safety Hazard

Migrants confront police as they begin carrying out eviction orders at an abandoned school building where hundreds of mostly undocumented migrants had been living, in Badalona, near Barcelona, Spain, Wednesday, Dec. 17, 2025. (AP Photo/Emilio Morenatti)
Migrants confront police as they begin carrying out eviction orders at an abandoned school building where hundreds of mostly undocumented migrants had been living, in Badalona, near Barcelona, Spain, Wednesday, Dec. 17, 2025. (AP Photo/Emilio Morenatti)

Police in northeastern Spain carried out eviction orders Wednesday to clear an abandoned school building where hundreds of mostly undocumented migrants were living in a squat north of Barcelona.

Knowing that the eviction in the middle of winter was coming, most of the occupants had left to try to find other shelter before police in riot gear from Catalonia's regional police entered the school’s premises early in the morning under court orders. Those who had waited left peacefully.

The squat was located in Badalona, a working class city that borders Barcelona. Many sub-Saharan migrants, mostly from Senegal and Gambia, had moved into the empty school building since it was left abandoned in 2023.

The mayor of Badalona, Xavier García Albiol, announced the evictions in a post on X. “As I had promised, the eviction of the squat of 400 illegal squatters in the B9 school in Badalona begins," he wrote.

The judicial order obliged the Badalona town hall to provide the evicted people with access to social services, but it did not oblige local authorities to find housing for all the squatters.

Lawyer Marta Llonch, who represents the squatters, said that many people would surely end up without shelter in the cold.

“Many people are going to sleep on the street tonight,” Llonch told The Associated Press. “Just because you evict these people it doesn’t mean they disappear. If you don’t give them an alternative place to live they will now be on the street, which will be a problem for them and the city.”

Many of the squatters lived from selling scrap metal collected from the streets. Others had residency and work permits but were forced to live there because they couldn't afford housing during a cost-of-living crunch that is making it difficult even for working Spaniards to buy or rent homes. That housing crisis has led to widespread social angst and public protests.

On leaving the school, people loaded their belongings onto carts, some used as trailers led by bicycles, to haul them away.

García Albiol, of the conservative Popular Party, has built his political career as Badalona's long-standing mayor with an anti-immigration stance.

The Badalona town hall had argued that the squat was a public safety hazard. In 2020, an old factory occupied by around a hundred migrants in Badalona caught fire and four people were killed in the blaze.

Like other southern European countries, Spain has for more than a decade seen a steady influx of migrants who risked their lives crossing the Mediterranean or Atlantic in small boats.