China’s ZTE says it’s basically dropped Iran business

Beijing (Reuters) – ZTE, China’s second-largest telecoms equipment maker, has essentially stopped doing business in Iran after a US investigation into alleged sales of embargoed equipment, the company’s chairman told Reuters on Thursday.

ZTE said in March last year that it would curtail business in Iran following a report by Reuters that it sold Iran’s largest telecoms firm a powerful surveillance system capable of monitoring telephone and Internet communications. The company is now facing a US criminal investigation over the issue.

“We’ve basically stopped. We have to continue to service the products we had sold before – we have no choice,” Hou Weigui said in an interview in Beijing. “We maintain communication with them to enable locals to carry out maintenance.”