General Motors Co. said Wednesday that its French partner, PSA Peugeot Citroen SA, has suspended shipments of vehicle components to an Iranian car maker, the Wall Street Journal reported.
GM noted that its alliance with Peugeot "is fully compliant with U.S. law governing trade with Iran."
GM has faced criticism from United Against Nuclear Iran, a group founded by a former U.S. ambassador to the U.N., and others opposed to the Iranian regime for agreeing to buy a 7% stake in the French car maker, because Peugeot has in the past supplied parts to Iranian car maker Iran Khodro.
GM, in a statement, said "we have discussed this issue with Peugeot. We understand that they made the decision to suspend the production and shipment of material into Iran some time ago - before we entered into our alliance with them in fact - and have decided to continue with that suspension. Our agreement with them is fully compliant with US law governing trade with Iran, and is not intended to benefit Iran in any way."
The Treasury had no comment on the issue. The U.S. government owns a 27% stake in GM.
Peugeot has said that it doesn't have direct investments in Iran, and merely sold components to Iran Khodro. A Peugeot spokesman said earlier this month that the Khodro deal represented 1.5% of global revenue for Peugeot's automotive unit in 2011.
Edited by: S. Isayev