The move came after an Israeli foreign ministry official was quoted by the Haaretz newspaper as saying the Swedish government would oppose further sanctions to protect a deal between the telecommunications group, Ericsson, and the mobile operator, Irancell.
"It is only the surface that has been scraped for metals around the world, " said Magnus Ericsson, a senior partner at Raw Materials Group, a Solna, Sweden-based consultancy.
At the time cellular calls flitted from tower to tower under an electronic protocol later known as GSM (global system for mobile), a group effort whose three progenitors--Nokia, Ericsson and Motorola--had pooled their patents and didn't charge one another any royalties.