In a letter to Sasol executives, UANI CEO, Ambassador Mark D. Wallace, wrote:
...UANI was troubled by Sasol's transcribed conference call of June 10, 2013, which confirmed Sasol's ongoing business activities in the Iranian energy sector through Arya Sasol Polymer Company - a $900 million joint venture between Sasol and Iran's state-owned and sanctioned National Petrochemical Company ("NPC"). ...
... The insertion of the subordinate clause - "albeit slower than we initially anticipated" - is a prime illustration of Sasol's penchant for dissembling on the issue of its partnership with regime-controlled entities in Iran's petrochemical sector. Clearly, in light of the fact that Sasol first announced its intention to divest from its Iran venture as far back as November 2011, as well as the fact that Iran's petrochemical sector has been effectively blacklisted by the U.S., the extensive delay in Sasol's execution of its divestment from Iran is incomprehensible and unacceptable.
... In the January 2013 letter, UANI stated: "...fourteen months have already passed since Sasol's intention to divest its Iran business first became public." Incredibly, that statement must now be revised to read "nineteen months have already passed since Sasol's intention to divest its Iran business first became public." Sasol's self-serving announcement that it has signed a Memorandum of Understanding with an anonymous and unnamed "interested party" regarding the potential sale of its stake in its NPC partnership is hardly a substitute for substantive and conclusive action to resolve the outstanding concerns regarding Sasol's Iran business. ...
... Sasol's apparent ongoing campaign to obtain eligibility for certain tax subsidies under section 6426 of the Internal Revenue Code (IRC) could be complicated by its extensive and ongoing Iran business. ... It is highly doubtful that U.S. officials and the American public will be sympathetic to Sasol's lobbying efforts to secure special tax benefits at a time when Sasol is engaged in an ongoing partnership with a regime that is the world's leading state sponsor of terrorism and responsible for the deaths of countless U.S. personnel in Iraq, Afghanistan and Lebanon.
Put simply, it is shameful for Sasol to directly support the Iranian regime while simultaneously lobbying U.S. officials to secure U.S. federal tax breaks. It has now been more than 19 months since Sasol announced its intention to leave Iran. Please be advised that as a result of the foregoing, as well as Sasol's singular obfuscations and delaying tactics, UANI will do everything in its power to ensure that relevant legislative and regulatory authorities in the U.S., as well as the American public at large, are appropriately apprised of Sasol's extensive Iran business operations in sanctioned sectors of the Iranian economy. ...
Since January, UANI has been
publicly calling on Sasol to pull out of Iran. On February 2, 2013, the
Shreveport Times published a
UANI Op-Ed highlighting Sasol's business with the Iranian regime, and Sasol's failure to end that business.
In April, UANI
put up a billboard near Sasol's Louisiana offices,
reading "BEFORE YOU BUILD HERE, STOP BUILDING IN IRAN. SASOL MUST CHOOSE: LOUISIANA OR IRAN'S TERRORIST REGIME."
Click
here to read UANI's full letter to Sasol.
Click
here to see KPLC's report about UANI's Sasol billboard.
Click
here to view a graphic of UANI's Sasol billboard.
Click
here to read Ambassador Wallace's
Shreveport Times Op-Ed, "Make La. Iran-free energy zone."
Click
here to send a message to Sasol.
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