Nokia Siemens to scale back Iran operations

Nokia Siemens Networks (NSN) will almost certainly choose not to renew its export contracts to Iran next year due to tightening global sanctions. 

The networking company said in a letter to its staff in Iran that the sanctions made it "almost impossible" to do business with Iranian customers, the Wall Street Journal reports. 

Besides international pressure on trading with Iran, "sanctions on all international banks and other financial institutions" make it difficult for the company to move money out of Iran.   

The move by NSN would take it well beyond earlier constraints it has placed on trade with Iran. 

Chinese networking rival Huawei last week said it would put a cap on new business in Iran, consistent with previous restrictions imposed by Ericsson and NSN.

All three networking vendors supply infrastructure to MTN Irancell, however NSN was criticised for supplying the mobile carrier's monitoring centre in 2008, which it has since sold off.