{"id":655230,"date":"2026-06-22T13:00:33","date_gmt":"2026-06-22T11:00:33","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/?p=655230"},"modified":"2026-06-22T13:05:10","modified_gmt":"2026-06-22T11:05:10","slug":"good-news-for-mtn-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/cellular\/655230-good-news-for-mtn-2.html","title":{"rendered":"Good news for MTN"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

MTN said that it would welcome any return to stability that supports the regional business landscape in the Middle East in the wake of negotiations between the U.S. and Iran.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This followed news that the United States had signed a memorandum of understanding with Iran as a precursor to peace negotiations, and reports of a positive first day of negotiations.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Crucially, one of the stipulations of the memorandum was the U.S. terminating all sanctions against Iran, which would pave the way for MTN to exit its stake in Irancell.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Since 2020, MTN\u2019s strategy has been to exit the Middle East entirely. It has already divested its stakes in mobile operators in Syria, Afghanistan, and Yemen.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

However, it said it has been unable to sell its stake in Irancell due to U.S. sanctions<\/a>. It has been placed in a position where it must either abandon the business or hope for better days.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cYou cannot take money in, and you cannot take money out,\u201d MTN Group CEO Ralph Mupita has said, adding that the company\u2019s investment in Iran was \u201ca frozen asset\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As a result of sanctions imposed by the United States on 20 September 2019, MTN can\u2019t access R2.3 billion that is effectively frozen in its Iranian business.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The U.S. Treasury Department\u2019s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) imposed sanctions on Iran\u2019s Central Bank for allegedly funding terrorist organisations.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIran\u2019s Central Bank has provided billions of dollars to the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC), its Qods Force (IRGC-QF), and its terrorist proxy, Hezbollah,\u201d it stated<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

At the time, OFAC had imposed the sanctions on the central bank after the country conducted military strikes on Saudi Arabia, a major U.S. partner.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIran\u2019s brazen attack against Saudi Arabia is unacceptable,\u201d OFAC said. \u201cTreasury\u2019s action targets a crucial funding mechanism that the Iranian regime uses to support its terrorist network.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Pressure on MTN<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

This pressure has made MTN\u2019s 49% stake in Irancell one of its most challenging international business ventures.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Making matters worse for MTN is the uncertainty that, when the sanctions are lifted, there will be any money left in Irancell to take.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Since 2025, the Iranian Rial has weakened significantly against the U.S. dollar by as much as 45%. One U.S. dollar traded<\/a> for as much as 1.6 million rials.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Iran is facing a systemic economic crisis amid continued conflict with Israel and the United States, and MTN was forced to watch its investment go up in flames.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the results, the telecom stated that outstanding receivables from Iran amounted to R2.8 billion in 2024, indicating a near R500 million loss in value as of December 2025 \u2014 before the recent escalation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This amount is likely to continue decreasing, despite Irancell\u2019s ongoing operations. A point reflected in the latest results: MTN\u2019s share of earnings in Irancell dropped 32% from the year prior to R3.2 billion.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Some good news for MTN came in paragraph 7 of the memorandum of understanding signed between the U.S. and Iran. It is reproduced verbatim below.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n

The United States of America undertakes to terminate all types of sanctions against the Islamic Republic of Iran, including the United Nations Security Council resolutions, I.A.E.A. Board of Governors resolutions, and all unilateral U.S. sanctions, primary and secondary, in an agreed-upon schedule as part of the final deal. The Islamic Republic of Iran and the United States of America acknowledge the critical importance of the sanctions termination issue above mentioned, and express their intentions to immediately address these issues in the negotiations in order to achieve mutual agreement on them.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

Michael Crowley, White House correspondent for The New York Times, said<\/a> relief from crushing economic sanctions may be the only thing that can persuade Iran to surrender its nuclear programme.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Crowley wrote that this was the basis for the 2015 Iran nuclear deal, which traded sanctions relief for strict caps on Iran\u2019s nuclear activity.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThose caps were limited to a maximum of 15 years, however, and U.S. President Donald Trump says he wants much longer \u2014 or even permanent \u2014 constraints on Tehran\u2019s nuclear programme.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

However, Crowley said a big challenge would be determining the \u201cagreed-upon schedule\u201d that establishes what sanctions the United States will remove, and when, as Iran fulfils its nuclear commitments.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThat will likely mean a gradual process in which the two mistrustful sides take alternating incremental steps.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When MyBroadband asked MTN for comment about the memorandum and U.S.\u2013Iran negotiations, it declined to speculate what a deal would mean for the company.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cAs you know, since 2006, MTN Group has held a 49% investment in Irancell, which is not under MTN\u2019s operational control,\u201d it said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe would welcome any return to stability that supports the regional business landscape. We currently have no staff on the ground and continue monitoring developments.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Positive developments in the negotiations between the United States and Iran is good news from MTN.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":15,"featured_media":636332,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":true,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[19,14],"tags":[35045,42,39564],"class_list":["post-655230","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-business","category-cellular","tag-donald-trump","tag-mtn","tag-ralph-mupita"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/655230"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/15"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=655230"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/655230\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":655231,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/655230\/revisions\/655231"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/636332"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=655230"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=655230"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=655230"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}