{"id":7618,"date":"2012-02-03T13:40:37","date_gmt":"2012-02-03T11:40:37","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/02\/s-africa-denies-mtn-influence-on-iran-nuclear-talks\/"},"modified":"2012-02-03T13:40:37","modified_gmt":"2012-02-03T11:40:37","slug":"s-africa-denies-mtn-influence-on-iran-nuclear-talks","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/s-africa-denies-mtn-influence-on-iran-nuclear-talks\/","title":{"rendered":"S.Africa denies MTN influence on Iran nuclear talks"},"content":{"rendered":"

\t\t<\/span><\/p>\n

* S.Africa denies being swayed by phone firm on Iran<\/span><\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

* MTN shares tumble<\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

JOHANNESBURG<\/span> Feb 3 (Reuters) – South Africa denied on
\nFriday that it had been pressured by MTN Group into
\nbacking Tehran’s nuclear programme and aiding its military when
\nthe Johannesburg-based mobile operator was bidding for a
\ntelephone licence in Iran.<\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

“South Africa’s foreign policy is independent and it cannot
\nbe influenced by anyone,” Foreign Ministry spokesman Clayson
\nMonyela said.<\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

South Africa has been reluctant to join Western nations in
\nimposing sanctions on Iran, but has stopped short of open
\nsupport for Tehran. Iran supplies a quarter of South Africa’s
\ncrude supply.<\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

MTN, Africa’s biggest mobile operator, said on Thursday it
\nwas facing a potential lawsuit in a U.S. court from rival
\nTurkcell over its licence in Iran.<\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

MTN said Turkcell was set to say that MTN encouraged South
\nAfrica to take a favourable stance towards Iran’s nuclear
\ndevelopment programme.<\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

MTN dismissed the allegations as having no legal merit, but
\nits shares still tumbled 3.7 percent, reflecting investor
\nconcern about its Iranian operation, which accounts for nearly
\n10 percent of total revenues.<\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

The Turkish mobile firm will also accuse MTN of asking
\nPretoria to provide military equipment to Iran and bribing
\nofficials of both governments in order to win the licence, MTN
\nsaid.
\n\u00a0 Continued…<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

* S.Africa denies being swayed by phone firm on Iran * MTN shares tumble JOHANNESBURG Feb 3 (Reuters) – South Africa denied on Friday that it had been pressured by MTN Group into backing Tehran’s nuclear programme and aiding its military when the Johannesburg-based mobile operator was bidding for a telephone licence in Iran. “South […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[1],"tags":[830,2370,183],"class_list":{"0":"post-7618","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-south-africa","7":"tag-news","8":"tag-reuters","9":"tag-south-africa-2","10":"entry"},"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7618","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7618"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7618\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7618"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7618"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7618"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}