ETS Suspends Testing in Iran

The Educational Testing Service has suspended registration in Iran for the Test of English as a Foreign Language, The New York Times reports.

A statement posted on the ETS Web site says that as a result of United Nations sanctions, “ETS is currently unable to process payments from Iran and has had to temporarily suspend registration.”

The Times quoted Karim Sadjadpour, an Iran expert at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, as saying ETS should be exempt from the sanctions since the exam “is often a path to the outside world for young Iranians.”

“The government is not being hurt by Toefl not operating in Iran,” he said. “It’s the people, and precisely the people we’re hoping to empower.”