As a lecturer Babak Boghraty teaches corporate law and compliance at Boston University’s School of Law. In particular he teaches about ZTE Corp.’s guilty plea, record penalty and U.S. sanctions for selling telecom products to Iran.

So President Donald Trump’s decision on Sunday to apparently walk back the seven-year ban keeping China’s ZTE from importing any U.S. telecom goods struck Boghraty as odd, and as having far-reaching implications.