Apple Cuts Iran-Made Apps From Store Over Sanctions

On a Saturday in mid-August, Iranian entrepreneur Mehdi Nayebi received an email from Apple Inc.’s App Store Review stating that his application, AloPeyk, a delivery service in Tehran, had been removed due to sanctions put in place by the U.S. government.

He wasn’t the only one. About a dozen other Iran-focused apps, including Delion Foods, a meals delivery startup, online store Digikala, Bamilo, an e-commerce marketplace, and ride-hailing app Snapp, were also similarly removed, according to Nayebi, and Delion’s co-founder Mahdi Taghizadeh.

“We got removed from App Store overnight, without any sort of warning,” Nayebi said. “We had just published ...