ZTE has been granted a reprieve from the U.S. to continue work with Iran. This is the shortest reprieve granted by U.S. to ZTE.

Bureau of Industry and Security of the U.S. Department of Commerce has extended ZTE’s temporary general license to March 29th. The extension allows U.S. firms to continue to supply the Chinese company with software, technology and components despite the restrictions announced in March 2016.

But the latest window is smaller than earlier 90-day reprieves granted by the Commerce Department, which keeps the pressure on and may be interpreted in two ways, according to Washington attorney Douglas Jacobson. “It indicates the final settlement is imminent or is just a stopgap to give the new administration time to decide how they want to proceed,” said Jacobson, who specializes in international trade law and represents a number of U.S. companies that supply ZTE. We should mention the company had previously received four consecutive extensions, each of which was valid up to three months, since March 24.

Earlier this month, ZTE said that they were working with the appropriate regulators to get the issue resolved so that they can continue business as usual in both countries. ZTE relies on some of the biggest companies in the US to get their products to consumers, like Google, Qualcomm and Microsoft. Qualcomm makes the processors and modems in their smartphones, while Google and Microsoft are on the operating system side of things for ZTE. And working with those other companies is what has really made ZTE suffer, because nothing with Qualcomm, Google, Microsoft or any US company hardwares used in the products can be shipped on over to Iran because of these sanctions. But it appears that ZTE has been doing this since 2012, so this isn’t something new from ZTE, but they have been caught and are now trying to resolve the issue with the government. “Until settlement discussions come to an end, it’s impossible to predict what further hoops ZTE will have to jump through,” Paul Haswell, a partner at international law firm Pinsent Masons, told the South China Morning Post. ZTE has said it was negotiating with three US agencies, the Commerce Department, the Department of Justice and the Department of Treasury.

Drop us a comment and tell us what you think. Is U.S. going to cut off Iran from all the American technologies? or they can’t?

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