KFC opens branch in Iran despite US sanctions

Feb 25, 2012, 17:14 GMT

Tehran - The American fast food chain restaurant Kentucky Fried Chicken has opened a branch in Iran despite harsh US sanctions against Iran over that country's nuclear programmes, Iranian media reported Saturday.

Iran's first KFC branch was opened on Friday in Karaj, a suburb of Tehran, several news websites reported.

Ami-Hossein Alizadeh, the licence holder, said it took him five years to get the permission from relevant local authorities to re-open KFC in Iran.

KFC was closed in Iran following the 1979 Islamic revolution, due to its affiliation with the US, the country's political arch-enemy.

Alizadeh claimed that 500 more KFC branches would soon be opened nationwide in Iran.

The opening of the KFC comes as a surprise, especially with the US cutting any business ties to Iran due to its suspicion that Tehran's nuclear programmes are designed to create weapons.

The Iranian administration has also prohibited any business activities which would symbolize Western culture, especially those that give a high profile to American brands.

Iranian police have in the past prohibited the sale of Barbie and Simpsons dolls for children.

A plan by a group of Iranian entrepreneurs in the 1990s to open a branch of McDonalds in northern Tehran was abruptly dropped after Islamist students attacked the branch and successfully blocked its opening.

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