German telecom operator Deutsche Telekom and railway company Deutsche Bahn, both with the German state among their shareholders, are leaving the Iranian market in connection with the sanctions imposed by the United States, local media reported on Thursday.
BERLIN (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 16th August, 2018) German telecom operator Deutsche Telekom and railway company Deutsche Bahn, both with the German state among their shareholders, are leaving the Iranian market in connection with the sanctions imposed by the United States, local media reported on Thursday.
Deutsche Telekom, in which the state owns a 32-percent stake, closed all Iranian projects back in May, while fully state-owned Deutsche Bahn will close the projects before late September, the Wirtschaftswoche newspaper reported, citing the companies.
Deutsche Bahn is currently participating in two projects in Iran jointly with its subsidiary DB Engineering & Consulting. The projects will be completed in August and in September 2018, the company's spokesman told the publication, citing "changed banking practice" as the reason for leaving Iran.
The withdrawal of Deutsche Telekom was aimed at removing the risk of providing US authorities a pretext to stop the merger between the German company's US subsidiary T-Mobile and its competitor Sprint, the publication said. Just three weeks after the announcement of the merger, Telekom has pulled all employees of its in-house management consultancy Detecon from Iran. Detecon had contracts with the fixed-line operator Telecommunication Company of Iran (TCI) and mobile operator MTN Irancell.
Earlier this month, German car manufacturer Daimler and mechanical engineering company Herrenknecht announced the suspension of work in Iran in connection with US sanctions.
In May, US President Donald Trump announced that his country would exit the 2015 Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), also known as the Iran nuclear deal, which stipulated the gradual lifting of the anti-Iran sanctions in exchange for Tehran maintaining the peaceful nature of its nuclear program. In addition, Trump decided to reinstate the previously lifted sanctions on Iran. The unilateral move has been opposed by other signatories to the agreement, which pledged commitment to the deal.
In response to Washington's reimposition of anti-Iranian sanctions, the European Union activated on August 7 its Blocking Statute, protecting the European companies from the application of sanctions by a third country, in order to exempt the EU firms from complying with the US sanctions against Iran.
