{"id":11748,"date":"2018-08-16T19:25:22","date_gmt":"2018-08-16T19:25:22","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/?p=11748"},"modified":"2018-08-16T19:25:22","modified_gmt":"2018-08-16T19:25:22","slug":"german-rail-and-telecom-giants-pull-out-of-iran-over-sanctions","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/?p=11748","title":{"rendered":"German rail and telecom giants pull out of Iran over sanctions"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

\nLONDON: Leading German firms from the transport and telecom sectors are pulling out of their projects in Iran as new US sanctions take a toll on foreign investors in the country.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\nRail operator Deutsche Bahn and Deutsche Telekom said they would end their involvement because the American measures state that firms investing in Iran would be barred from doing business with the United States.<\/p>\n

\nThe German firms are the latest European companies to suspend investments in Iran after the sanctions came into effect last week.<\/p>\n

\nOil giant Total, as well as carmakers PSA, Renault and Daimler, have already said they will withdraw from projects in Iran.<\/p>\n

\nHarvard scholar and Iranian affairs expert, Majid Rafizadeh, said the Iranian regime is in deep trouble at home as the sanctions are working.<\/p>\n

\u201cMore companies and firms are halting \u2014 and will continue to halt \u2014 their business deals with Iran,\u201d he told Arab News. \u201cForeign investors are also withdrawing. This is significant due to the fact that many foreign investors have invested billions of dollars in Iran\u2019s debt market as Tehran\u2019s economy is cash-strapped.<\/p>\n

\u201cOn the surface, Iran\u2019s leaders are brushing aside the sanctions as trivial, but Tehran is significantly wary as the sanctions are affecting its economy negatively.<\/p>\n

\n\u201dIf the Iranian regime does not alter its destructive behavior, the sanctions will cripple its economy,\u201d Rafizadeh added.<\/p>\n

\nWashington introduced the sanctions after Donald Trump decided earlier this year to pull the US out of the international agreement with Iran to curb its nuclear program in exchange for an easing of sanctions.<\/p>\n

\nThe US president said that while the deal has been in place, Tehran has continued to develop its ballistic missiles and pursued an aggressive foreign policy of supporting militias in countries across the Middle East.<\/p>\n

\nThe first raft of sanctions have focussed on stopping Iran from purchasing US dollars and precious metals as well as targeting the automotive sector among others.<\/p>\n

\nA second wave planned for November will target the energy sector \u2014 the main source of state revenues.<\/p>\n

\nEuropean leaders have insisted on trying to save the nuclear deal but firms have already acted to avoid being caught up in the sanctions.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\nState-owned Deutsche Bahn is involved in two projects in Iran via its subsidiary DB Engineering&Consulting, a spokeswoman told Reuters on Thursday.<\/p>\n

\n\u201cBoth projects will be ended in August and September 2018 respectively,\u201d she said. \u201cDue to the altered banking practice we have sought to bring the contract to an amicable and timely conclusion.\u201d<\/p>\n

\nDeutsche Bahn signed a memorandum of understanding with the Iranian rail operator Bonyad Eastern Railways (BonRail) in May 2017 for the first project, which aimed to identify and address potential in rolling stock and organization, she said.<\/p>\n

\nThe second project, which started around one-and-a-half years ago, was a consulting contract for Iranian state railway RAI that included restructuring the company, the spokeswoman added.<\/p>\n

\nSeparately, Detecon, a subsidiary of T-Systems \u2014 Deutsche Telekom\u2019s IT services arm \u2014 has terminated its business in Iran. Detecon offers consulting services to companies in the telecommunications industry.<\/p>\n

\n\u201cUntil the decision to stop operations was made, sales in Iran in 2018 amounted to around 300,000 euros,\u201d he told Reuters.<\/p>\n

\n\u201cGiven the sensitivity in relations with Iran worldwide, Detecon ended its business in Iran with immediate effect in mid-May 2018.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

LONDON: Leading German firms from the transport and telecom sectors are pulling out of their projects in Iran as new US sanctions take a toll on foreign investors in the country.\u00a0 Rail operator Deutsche Bahn and Deutsche Telekom said they would end their involvement because the American measures state that firms investing in Iran would…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10,"featured_media":11749,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-11748","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-middle_east_news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11748","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/10"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=11748"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11748\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/11749"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=11748"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=11748"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=11748"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}