Tehran’s city council has voted to prohibit advertisements for global brands associated with Israeli companies such as Coca-Cola and Nestle, expanding the ban to sales in municipal markets and purchases by the city municipality.
Mehdi Babaei, head of the council’s safety committee, said the decision aligns with broader policies.
“Beyond banning advertisements, the sale of such goods in municipality chain stores and fruit and vegetable markets, as well as their procurement by the municipality, is now prohibited,” he said.
The measure explicitly targets brands identified as having Israeli ties, such as Coca-Cola and Nestlé, barring them from using the city’s advertising infrastructure, including billboards and urban media networks.
The council framed the move as a response to directives from Iran’s leadership, citing support for the Palestinian cause and efforts to restrict the economic influence of companies it considers linked to Israel.
The municipality is now tasked with implementing the policy across all advertising spaces under its control, ensuring that no municipality-affiliated stores or markets distribute the affected goods.
Officials say enforcement mechanisms will be detailed in the coming weeks, though past restrictions on Israeli-linked businesses in Iran have often relied on broader national trade policies rather than municipal oversight.
Last year, the Islamic Republic's Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei called on Muslim countries to isolate Israel.
He said Iran “has the definite expectation and suggestion” that Islamic countries sever political and economic ties with Israel, at least until Israel stops its war on Hamas, triggered by the Iran-backed group's assault on Israel on October 7, 2023.
The platform, designed to operate on domestic languages and remain functional even with internet disruptions, is slated for full release by March 2026, according to the Vice Presidency for Science, Technology and Knowledge-Based Economy.
"This platform is a living entity and must be constantly updated," said Vice-President Hossein Afshin, during the unveiling ceremony.
He outlined a phased rollout, with initial testing and optimization in 2025, followed by limited access for experts and knowledge-based companies, a public beta release, and the final version in March 2026.
Framing the project as a strategic move in a global "war of chips and algorithms.”
Afshin and other officials present in the ceremony cited the platform's open-source nature and domestic infrastructure as key advantages, which they said will ensure its functionality even under sanctions or internet disruptions.
"If they want to sanction us, Iran has already obtained this technology," Afshin said.
"We are moving forward with the world," said Hamidreza Rabiei, head of the Advanced Information and Communication Technology Research Institute. "We are not taking any API from any foreign platform, and if the internet is cut off, nothing will happen to the platform because we are connected to the national internet."
The project, involving nearly 100 researchers and experts, aims to address Iran's lagging AI development compared to regional peers.
"We do not have a good situation in AI indicators compared to the countries of the region," said Hossein Asadi, director of the Rapid Processing Center and Sharif University's representative in the project. He cited declining research articles and slow growth in AI-focused companies as evidence.
A key partner in Iran's new AI platform, Sharif University is under international sanctions for its involvement in military and ballistic missile projects. The university, which maintains close ties with the Ministry of Defense, the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), and the IRGC Air Force, has faced sanctions from the European Union, the United Kingdom, and Japan.
A demo of the AI platform was unveiled during a visit of Iran's Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei to an exhibition called "Pioneers of Progress" in late January.
According to the creators, the platform's features include a GPU-based processing infrastructure, large language and multi-modal models, intelligent agents, and application layers for various industries.
The country’s first AI platform was unveiled a few months after a European Union report raised concerns about Iran's increasing reliance on AI-driven technologies for surveillance and suppression, highlighting the development of systems aimed at enforcing state control over digital information.
The report, titled "Artificial intelligence (AI) and human rights: Using AI as a weapon of repression and its impact on human rights," detailed how Iran is deploying AI-based tools to enhance its monitoring capabilities.
"Examples include the use of facial recognition technology during protests, the use of AI-driven bots and automated accounts to amplify content favorable to the regime, and the use of AI-based tools to produce content in different languages, in order to reach a global audience,” read the report.
Specifically, the report points to Iran's development of the National Information Network (NIN), a domestically focused internet infrastructure designed to isolate Iranian users from the global web.
The network, the report said, significantly strengthens the government's ability to impose censorship and restrict access to counter-narratives disseminated on foreign websites.
According to the report, Iran's AI development is bolstered by partnerships with Chinese entities, including major companies supplying technology to its police and military. Hardware imports, primarily from the UAE but also from China, Turkey, and India, further support these capabilities.