In Case You Missed It: "United Against Nuclear Iran ... Led a Spirited Campaign Calling for Fiat to Exit the Iranian Market"

   

In Case You Missed It: "United Against Nuclear Iran ... Led a Spirited Campaign Calling for Fiat to Exit the Iranian Market" UANI Fiat Campaign Success Featured in the Associated Press, Dow Jones, FoxNews.com, The Wall Street Journal, MLive.com, CarScoop Italian automaker Fiat halts sales to Iran By Colleen Barry Associated Press May 25, 2012 MILAN - Italian automaker Fiat SpA, which controls Chrysler, said Friday that it and subsidiaries will immediately halt sales to Iran, following similar moves by other carmakers under pressure to cut ties to Tehran over its disputed nuclear program. The international community has been toughening sanctions on the Islamic Republic - including on its main cash cow, oil - because of fears that it plans to build nuclear weapons. Iran says its nuclear program is peaceful. The auto industry has been under pressure from the anti-nuclear lobby group United Against Nuclear Iran to cut off business dealings with Iran. UANI says that the global auto industry is the second-largest source of foreign currency for the Iranian government, after oil, and also a source of foreign technology. The decision by Fiat to halt sales "is a step in the right direction, and it shows the effectiveness of public pressure against these companies," UANI spokesman Nathan Carleton said from New York. ... The announcement follows similar ones in recent months by French automaker PSA Peugeot Citroen SA, which has entered an alliance with General Motors Co., South Korean automaker Hyundai and German sports carmaker Porsche. More than a dozen foreign automakers continue to do business with Iran, said UANI, which noted that Iran's auto industry is the 13th largest in the world, producing 1.6 million vehicles in 2011. "No car company should be doing business in Iran," Carleton said. "The international community is trying to isolate the Iranian regime from the rest of the world, and any company doing business with Iran is providing a lifeline." Click here to read the full article. Fiat Ban On Sales To Iran Seen As Victory In Sanctions Campaign By Bob Tita Dow Jones Newswires May 25, 2012 Supporters of trade sanctions against Iran said Friday that Italian auto maker Fiat SpA's (F.MI) decision to stop doing business in Iran represented a major victory in a campaign to align European companies against Iran's nuclear program and human-rights violations. ... United Against Nuclear Iran, a New York-based lobbying group, said Fiat's decision is a milestone in its campaign to convince multinational corporations to stop selling products in Iran. "We welcome this announcement and are pleased that Fiat's subsidiary Iveco will no longer sell trucks to the Iranian regime, which has used them to transport ballistic missiles and perform gruesome public executions," the group said in a written statement. United Against Nuclear Iran also has been waging a "Cranes Campaign" against companies whose machinery in Iran is used in executions where the condemned are hung from cranes and their bodies left to dangle for public display. The group has used public-pressure tactics against several U.S. companies in recent years that it viewed as skirting a U.S. prohibition against domestic companies selling directly to Iranian customers. Caterpillar Inc. (CAT), Ingersoll-Rand PLC (IR), General Electric Co. (GE), Terex Corp. (TEX) and Huntsman Corp. (HUN) are among the U.S. companies that have moved to cut off overseas subsidiaries and independent dealers with sales ties to Iranian customers. The group said European and Asian companies have started to follow suit after largely resisting pressure from the group in the past. "Things are really changing and a lot of it has to do with the European Union getting more serious" about Iran's nuclear program, said Nathan Carleton, a spokesman for United Against Nuclear Iran. "It's a different climate than it was a year ago." Carleton said Fiat joins rival auto makers Porsche Automobil Holding SE in Germany and South Korea's Hyundai Motor Co. in recently disclosing that they will cease sales to Iran. Carleton said the group intends to remain vigilant about monitoring Fiat's business activities in Iran, noting that other companies have used existing contracts with dealers and distributors to maintain a presence in Iran long after announcing an end to direct sales activities. "We're going to keep an eye on it," he said. ... Click here to read the full article. Bowing to pressure, Fiat halts sales to Iran FoxNews.com May 25, 2012 After facing an onslaught of criticism that even involved Jennifer Lopez, Fiat has announced that it is halting sales to Iran. The Italian automaker, which controls Chrysler, said in a statement on Friday that it "supports international efforts for a diplomatic solution" regarding Iran. The international community in the last year has been increasing diplomatic and economic pressure on Iran to back down on its nuclear program. Singer Lopez had been repeatedly asked by United Against Nuclear Iran to renounce her relationship with Fiat after filming a series of commercials for the Fiat 500 minicar last year. ... Fiat Industrial heavy truck, agricultural and construction vehicles said it also was stopping sales to Iran. Fiat's announcement follows similar ones by Hyundai and Porsche. The auto industry has been under pressure from the anti-nuclear lobby group, United Against Nuclear Iran, to cut ties with the regime. Click here to read the full article. Fiat Slams Brake On Sales To Iran By Samuel Rubenfeld The Wall Street Journal May 25, 2012 Italian automaker Fiat SpA and its sister company Fiat Industrial SpA said Friday they would stop doing business in Iran in line with a trade embargo imposed by the West. ... Fiat exports cars to Iran while Fiat Industrial exports buses and trucks under its Iveco brand. ... United Against Nuclear Iran, a U.S.-based pressure group, has led a spirited campaign calling for Fiat to exit the Iranian market. For the past year, the group placed advertisements in New York newspapers, and it held a protest at the New York International Auto show. "Fiat has finally made the responsible decision to end its most egregious ties with the Iranian regime," said Nathan Carleton, a spokesman for United Against Nuclear Iran, in an email. "We call on Fiat to now fully end all of its business in Iran, including the sale and manufacturing of all Fiat and Maserati vehicles." Click here to read the full article. Fiat joins other automakers, suspends sales to Iran By Michael Wayland MLive.com May 25, 2012 Fiat SpA today said it will suspend sales to Iran. ... Fiat's announcement follows similar ones from other automakers, such as Hyundai and Porsche. According to the Associated Press, the auto industry has been under pressure from the anti-nuclear lobby group, United Against Nuclear Iran, to cut ties with the regime. UANI CEO Mark Wallace spoke earlier this year about UANI's Auto Campaign before a hearing on Iran sanctions held by the House Committee on Foreign Affairs (video embedded above). Fiat said sales to Iran in previous years "were totally immaterial in a quantitative and qualitative sense and any concerned products were sold for commercial and civilian use only." In April, Fox News reported Iran's auto industry, which has business relationships with Nissan, Fiat, Volvo and Peugeot, employs thousands of workers and exports vehicles to more than 30 countries. ... Click here to read the full article. Fiat Group Suspends Vehicle and Components Sales in Iran CarScoop May 25, 2012 Evidently, the Fiat Group has succumbed to international pressure to stop doing business in Iran, joining the ranks of other automakers like Porsche and Hyundai, both of which recently suspended sales in the country. "Fiat supports the international efforts for a diplomatic solution of the issues relating to the relations with Iran," the Italian company said in a statement. "In this respect, Fiat announces that effective immediately its subsidiaries will no longer carry out business activity related to products or components where the ultimate destination of such products is known to be Iran, other than to the limited extent required to fulfill already existing binding obligations," Fiat added. Back in January, a non-profit, anti-Iran group in the States, blasted Jennifer Lopez for promoting the Fiat 500, because it claimed, the automaker continued to do business with the country. "By endorsing Fiat, you are serving as a spokesperson for a company that freely does business with a regime that is developing an illegal nuclear weapons program, financing and sponsoring terrorist groups including al-Qaeda, has killed American and NATO soliders and is recognized as one of the world's leading human rights violators," said the United Against Nuclear Iran (UANI) group in an open letter to Lopez. Click here to read the full article. ###                                                                        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.

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