In Case You Missed It: "Sasol Had to Make the Choice Between the US and Iran"

In Case You Missed It: "Sasol Had to Make the Choice Between the US and Iran" UANI's Successful Sasol Campaign Reported in South Africa's Largest Business and Financial Weekly "In or out! SA maintains friendly relations with Iran" By Tandisizwe Mahlutshana Finweek August 29, 2013 It has been more than 20 months since Sasol announced its intention to exit Iran. This week, the energy company announced that it had finally reached a deal to sell its stake in Arya Sasol Polymer Company to Main Street 1095 (a South African subsidiary of an Iranian investor), after which it will have no ongoing investment in Iran. New York-based lobby group against Iran, United Against Nuclear Iran (UANI), which has been calling for Sasol and MTN to stop doing business in Iran for quite some time, applauded Sasol for ending its business in the Islamic republic. UANI Spokesperson Nathan Carleton told Finweek in an email that this was the right decision, adding, "We hope that Sasol considered the views of the American people in this matter, particularly those in the state of Louisiana, where they plan to do extensive business. Sasol had to make a choice: do business in Iran, or do business in the US." Portfolio Manager at Vestact Byron Lotter says that it was a simple situation-especially considering that the energy and chemical company was investing as much as its market cap equivalent in North America's Louisiana-Sasol had to make the choice between the US and Iran. "The US relations with Sasol are core to its future," Lotter told Finweek, adding that he did not think that Sasol's relations with the US were in any way becoming sour. Sasol chief executive David Constable told US media in September last year that Sasol had a "huge strategy" in Louisiana that would see it build the first commercial plant to convert gas liquids to oil in the US. The plant would produce 96000 barrels of fuel per day. Constable was further quoted as saying that "most fuel volume increases in the next eight years will be coming from North America". Meanwhile, another SA conglomerate, telecommunications group MTN, which entered the contentious Iranian market in 2005, has not been able to repatriate any funds from the country since early last year. President and MTN Group CEO Sifiso Dabengwa told the media at the group's interim results presentation in Johannesburg recently that his firm has been in talks with the US Treasury, the US Sate Department, as well as the South African Reserve Bank in order to find a solution to this matter, and was of the belief that that resolution would be reached before the end of the year . . . Moreover, the Department of International Relations spokesperson Clayson Monyela confirmed to Finweek that South Africa maintains a friendly relationship with Iran, even though the international sanctions imposed against the country have made trade increasingly difficult. This was also an official statement that his department had issued when Minster Maite Nkoana-Mashabane attended the inauguration of Dr Hassan Rouhani, Iran's new president, earlier this month. Part of the pressing talking points President Jacob Zuma put on Nkoana-Mashabane's plate during her diplomatic talks with Iran's newly elected president was a request for the Iranian leader to give priority to resolving all outstanding issues with the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) as far as that country's nuclear programme was concerned. According to Zuma, this would not only allow Iran to reclaim its rightful place in the international community, but it would also result in the lifting of international sanctions, which had caused immense hardships to the Iranian people . . . Click here to read UANI's statement regarding Sasol's exit from Iran.  Click here to read UANI's July 9, 2013 letter to Sasol. Click here to see KPLC-NBC's report about UANI's Sasol billboard. Click here to read Ambassador Wallace's Shreveport Times Op-Ed, "Make La. Iran-free energy zone." ### 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 nucleIn Case You Missed It: "Sasol Had to Make the Choice Between the US and Iran"ar 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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