UANI Releases Statement Regarding Ahmadinejad's Dinner at Warwick Hotel

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE September 21, 2011 Contact: Nathan Carleton, press@uani.com Phone: (212) 247-2700, ext. 1102 (212) 554-3296 UANI Releases Statement Regarding Ahmadinejad's Dinner at Warwick Hotel New York, NY - United Against Nuclear Iran (UANI) released the following statement regarding this evening's events at the Warwick Hotel. Said UANI Executive Director, David Ibsen: The faculty and students from U.S. universities, including Columbia, who joined Ahmadinejad at the Warwick Hotel this evening for dinner and accepted his "gift bags" for attending should be ashamed of themselves, as should the Warwick for providing this venue for Ahmadinejad to spew his rhetoric. Does the Warwick have any shame at all? This was not an open and free exchange of ideas, but a propagandistic attempt by the regime to improve its image. Anyone claiming to support liberty, tolerance, and human rights should strongly oppose a dictator who oppresses women, kills homosexuals, violates his citizens' basic rights and religious freedoms, and pursues nuclear weapons. These faculty and students represent an extreme minority of the American public. ###

United Against Nuclear Iran (UANI) is a program of the American Coalition Against Nuclear Iran, Inc., a tax-exempt organization under Section 501(c)(3) of the Internal Revenue Code. The prospect of a nuclear-armed Iran should concern every American and be unacceptable to the community of nations. Since 1979 the Iranian regime, most recently under President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's leadership, has demonstrated increasingly threatening behavior and rhetoric toward the US and the West. Iran continues to defy the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) and the United Nations in their attempts to monitor its nuclear activities. A number of Arab states have warned that Iran's development of nuclear weapons poses a threat to Middle East stability and could provoke a regional nuclear arms race. In short, the prospect of a nuclear armed Iran is a danger to world peace. United Against Nuclear Iran (UANI) is a non-partisan, broad-based coalition that is united in a commitment to prevent Iran from fulfilling its ambition to become a regional super-power possessing nuclear weapons. UANI is an issue-based coalition in which each coalition member will have its own interests as well as the collective goal of advancing an Iran free of nuclear weapons. The Objectives of United Against a Nuclear Iran Inform the public about the nature of the Iranian regime, including its desire and intent to possess nuclear weapons, as well as Iran's role as a state sponsor of global terrorism, and a major violator of human rights at home and abroad; Heighten awareness nationally and internationally about the danger that a nuclear armed Iran poses to the region and the world; Mobilize public support, utilize media outreach, and persuade our elected leaders to voice a robust and united American opposition to a nuclear Iran; Lay the groundwork for effective US policies in coordination with European and other allies; Persuade the regime in Tehran to desist from its quest for nuclear weapons, while striving not to punish the Iranian people, and; Promote efforts that focus on vigorous national and international, social, economic, political and diplomatic measures. UANI is led by an advisory board of outstanding national figures representing all sectors of our country.