France’s Orange SA has entered preliminary talks to buy a piece of Iran’s largest cellular operator in what would mark the first acquisition of a stake in a major Iranian firm by a Western company since nuclear sanctions were lifted in January.

Orange, France’s largest telecom company, is one of several European companies that have held discussions about taking a stake in Mobile Telecommunication Co. of Iran, according to people familiar with the matter. The names of the others couldn’t immediately be learned.

A deal would come on the heels of the lifting of international sanctions on Iran over its nuclear program, which the U.S. and other nations say was working toward producing a nuclear bomb, something Tehran has denied.

The Paris-based company is discussing a commercial and technical agreement as well as a share purchase, the people said. Orange, which is 23%-owned by the French government, is navigating difficult straits as Iran strains to open its markets up to the West. It needs to squeeze financing for a potential deal out of Western banks that are fearful of being hit by remaining U.S. sanctions.

In addition, MCI’s parent company, Telecommunication Co. of Iran, or TCI, is owned by a group of companies that in some cases lead back to Iran’s Revolutionary Guards Corps, a paramilitary force that runs large swaths of the Iranian economy and remains under U.S. sanctions for its alleged involvement in terrorism, an accusation it denies.