Olli Heinonen, Senior Fellow at Harvard's Belfer Center, Joins UANI Advisory Board

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE  May 8, 2012 Contact: Nathan Carleton, press@uani.com Phone: (212) 554-3296 Olli Heinonen, Senior Fellow at Harvard's Belfer Center, Joins UANI Advisory Board New York, NY - Today, United Against Nuclear Iran (UANI) announced that Dr. Olli Heinonen, Senior Fellow at Harvard's Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs, will join UANI's Advisory Board. Prior to joining the Harvard faculty in 2010, Dr. Heinonen served as Deputy Director General of the IAEA, where he oversaw its efforts to monitor and contain Iran's nuclear program. Said UANI CEO, Ambassador Mark D. Wallace: We are grateful to Dr. Olli Heinonen for joining UANI's Advisory Board. Dr. Heinonen's knowledge of Iran's nuclear program is unrivaled. UANI will benefit greatly from his expertise and counsel. Click here for more information about UANI's leadership and advisory board. Before joining the Belfer Center as a senior fellow in August 2010, Olli Heinonen served 27 years at the International Atomic Energy Agency in Vienna. Heinonen spent the last five years as Deputy Director General of the IAEA, and head of its Department of Safeguards. He led the Agency's efforts to identify and dismantle nuclear proliferation networks, including the one led by Pakistani scientist A.Q. Khan, and he oversaw its efforts to monitor and contain Iran's nuclear program. Heinonen led teams of international investigators to examine nuclear programs of concern around the world. He inspected nuclear facilities in South Africa, Iraq, North Korea, Syria, Libya, and elsewhere, seeking to ensure that nuclear materials were not diverted for military purposes. He is considered one of the world's leading experts on Iran's and North Korea's nuclear programs. He led the Agency's efforts in recent years to implement an analytical culture to guide and complement traditional verification activities. ###

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.