France Warns on Gulf Shipping

The French government has advised its shipowners to avoid sailing in the Persian Gulf because of the danger to shipping there, a government spokesman said today.

Ambroise Guellec, minister for the sea, told shipowners in a letter that all French ships traveling in the area will do so “entirely at their own risk and peril.” The letter was dated last Friday, the day France broke off relations with Iran in a dispute over the refusal of an Iranian official to face a French judge’s questioning over terrorist attacks in Paris.