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Yahoo and Microsoft have taken Iran off the country lists of their email services as the U.S. has imposed tougher sanctions on the Islamic country.

Yahoo, Microsoft Cut Email Services In Iran

Google has not followed suit and is keeping Iran on the Gmail registration page.

The move by Yahoo and Microsoft comes after the U.S. administration has increased economic pressure on Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's government, which began about two weeks ago.

"Yahoo! continually reviews its business operations to ensure compliance with these restrictions. Consistent with this policy, we cannot accept registrations from countries subject to these restrictions," A Yahoo spokeswoman told the Register.

"So essentially, you can't choose Iran as a country option because we are restricted from conducting business there - all US companies must comply with this policy." She was not able to say when Yahoo began applying the rules.

Microsoft said it could not comment on the subject.

Google says the sanctions do not prohibit it from keeping Iran on its Gmail country list. The company said, "Google is committed to full compliance with US export controls and sanctions programs and is confident in our compliance with those controls and programs."

The Iranian government plays a large role in censoring what its citizens can access online. The OpenNet Initiative, a partnership of Harvard, Toronto, Oxford and Cambridge universities says Iran has installed, "one of the most extensive technical filtering systems in the world."