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The Wall Street Journal reports that Apple executives have met with both U.S. and Iranian government officials to explore how the company could create a network of authorized resellers in the country, and to import and sell its iPhone models. There is no plan to open official Apple retail stores, the WSJ says, and other Apple products are not on the current list of products to sell.
For several years a group of technology advocates and human rights groups has been urging the U.S. government to allow certain exceptions to the broad economic sanctions against Iran that date back to the hostage crisis of 1979. The sanctions includ import and export restrictions, a banking blockade and the seizure of Iranian assets. But according to the human rights groups, the sanctions put the Iranian people in the dark, both about the rest of the world and their own country.
Groups like Access Now and the Iranian Human Rights Campaign lobbied Congress to allow the export of personal computer and cellular technology to Iran. They've argued that improved communications would generate increased support for the United States and other countries, particularly from the large segment of middle-class Iranians who are young enough to have only positive feelings for the U.S.
Earlier this year the U.S. and its sanction partners finally granted the telecom exception. But the decision still left it up to individual companies to navigate the complex regulations that allow businesses to legally operate in Iran. Few companies have taken the leap, especially considering the political and human rights issues.
With the exception in place but no companies acting, advocacy groups focused their attention on technology companies, and renewed their calls for the companies to step up and begin selling products to the Iranian people. In a 2012 letter to major American tech companies, including H-P, Google, Yahoo!, Facebook and Apple CEO Tim Cook, the groups explained their position. "Online media has emerged as a sanctuary to debate ideas, report human rights violations, and support women’s rights," the groups wrote. They called on the tech companies to end unnecessary blocking of services in Iran, and to apply for export licenses for their products and services. It wasn't about business, they argued, but about humanity.
Into this complex situation, Tim Cook and Apple have decided to take a step.
Cook may have already explained his decision to pursue sales in Iran when he introduced Apple Pay. "Most people that have worked on this have started by focusing on creating a business model that was centered around their self interest," he said at the product introduction, "instead of focusing on the user experience. We love this kind of problem. This is exactly what Apple does best."
And so Apple's top executives and board of directors weighed and balanced the issues— Iran's treatment of the LGBT community, citizens' rights of free speech and assembly, the government's support of terrorism, the complexities of navigating the sanctions, the need to create an interface with Iran's banking community, all to sell iPhones and—potentially—improve the lives of 77 million people. When the deliberations were over, the decision must have been clear.
The personal beliefs of a CEO are certain to affect the operation of a company. If Tim Cook firmly believes there is a "sunlit path toward justice," then he also believes that Apple can navigate that path into Iran for a higher purpose than business.
