Six U.S. lawmakers have asked the State
Department to investigate whether Chinese telecommunications-equipment maker
Huawei Technologies Co. has violated U.S. sanctions on Iran by supplying it
with sensitive communications technology that has been used for censorship.
The lawmakers called on the department to
"expeditiously investigate" whether Huawei violated U.S. sanctions
passed by Congress in 2010 by providing technology to government-controlled
telecoms that "has been used to restrict the speech of the Iranian people
and the free flow of unbiased information in Iran."
The Shenzhen, China-based company said it
wouldn’t seek new customers in Iran and will limit the scope of business with
existing clients.
While calling Huawei’s decision on Iran a
“positive step,” the lawmakers in a Dec. 22 letter to U.S. Secretary of State
Hillary Clinton said the company’s “previous actions and continuing service of
existing contracts with Iranian clients may violate” an Iran sanctions law
passed in 2010. The letter was released yesterday by the office of
Representative Sue Myrick, a North Carolina Republican.
The law, the Comprehensive Iran Sanctions,
Accountability and Divestment Act, prohibits the U.S. government from “entering
into or renewing a contract with a company that exports sensitive
telecommunications technology to Iran,” the lawmakers wrote.
The letter was signed by Republican Senators
John Kyl of Arizona, Jeff Sessions of Alabama and James Inhofe of Oklahoma;
Democratic Senator Sheldon Whitehouse of Rhode Island; and Republican
Representatives Frank Wolf of Virginia and Myrick.
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