The Iranian Parliament has urgently begun drafting a bill to boycott the iPhone. Deputy Chairman of the Parliament's National Security and Foreign Policy Committee of the Islamic Republic of Iran Kamal Dehghani Firouzabadi has told Sputnik that all Apple products as well as products from other American companies could be embargoed.
"We have no reason to invest in the companies of those countries that are waging an economic war against us. Therefore, we should discuss not only Apple's goods, but also all products by American manufacturers. If there is a complete consensus in Parliament, we will introduce a full embargo", he added.
Valiollah Ghadimi, a leading expert on communications and cybercrime at the Iranian Ministry of Justice, has told Sputnik how Iran managed to circumvent US sanctions so that its people could use Apple devices, as well as if an embargo on Apple's goods could be disastrous for Iranians.
"At one time, in order to circumvent US sanctions Iranian communications companies together with so-called Apple-accredited foreign firms registered subsidiaries abroad to register the iPhone and support OS updates for Iranian users. However, the enemies of Iran have revealed the list of these foreign firms to Apple which resulted in Iranian Apple users facing service and maintenance limitations. Apple has no official representative in Iran who would offer after-sales service for their products, and the company itself is creating restrictions for Iranian users. Users no longer have reason to buy Apple products".
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According to the expert, in Iran, the number of iPhone owners is only 17% of the total number of all mobile phone owners. "People started rejecting this product due to lack of service. We know that in the first week after limitations had been imposed, 300,000 iPhone owners were deprived of any service, and then within a month (late 2018 and early 2019) no iPhone was registered, therefore, no one was buying them anymore. Therefore, the law that the Parliament plans to approve partly follows from the will and desire of the Iranian people themselves", Ghadimi told Sputnik.
"In our country, there are specialists that have provided Iranian Apple users with service that Americans couldn't even dream of. Now, after taking decisive measures and introducing the embargo, they will start creating their own analogues for our people using alternative systems, such as Android, Samsung, Huawei, and others", the expert concluded.