MESSAGE FROM OBAMA
All this seems in contrast to U.S. promises after the nuclear deal. In March 2016, in a message to the Iranian people, then President Barack Obama said ending international sanctions "would mean more access to cutting-edge technologies, including information technologies that can help Iranian startups".
Since that message, anti-U.S. Iranian hardliners have followed the growth of startups suspiciously, branding them as vehicles of enemy infiltration. Two foreign-based tech investors have also ended up in prison.
Nizar Zakka, a Lebanese information technology expert with permanent U.S. residency, was jailed in 2016 for 10 years for collaborating against the state. He had attended a conference in Tehran the previous year at the invitation of one of Iran's vice presidents, only to be arrested by the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps as he was going to the airport to leave the country.
Iranian-American businessman Siamak Namazi also got 10 years in 2016 on charges of cooperating with the United States. While under arrest, Namazi appeared in an Iranian documentary seen by Reuters in which he said his mistake had been to accept money for his startup from an organisation linked to the U.S. Chamber of Commerce.
The Revolutionary Guards, a military force that runs an industrial empire, largely control telecommunications in Iran.
However, tech entrepreneurs say the environment is generally supportive. "We haven't come across any of those governmental push-backs," Adle said.
In the longer term, the sanctions would make using the souq.com model to cash in on Iranian investments much harder.
But Eddie Kerman, of London-based Indigo Holdings which links retail investors to Iranian tech firms, is optimistic.
"American companies like Amazon might not be able to enter the Iranian market, but there is a significant possibility that European or Asian companies buy the larger Iranian players," he said. ($1 = 0.8498 euros)
