Royal Dutch Shell and Ingersoll-Rand this week became the latest major corporations to announce they would cease or cut back business operations in Iran.
The announcements came as the United States and its European allies stepped up their efforts to win a tough new round of United Nations sanctions aimed at pressing Iran to rein in its nuclear program.
Over the weekend, The New York Times reported that over the past 10 years, the federal government gave more than $107 billion in contract payments, grants and other benefits to foreign and multinational American companies while they were doing business in Iran. Among them were Shell and Ingersoll-Rand.
