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UANI
Roundup
News and Updates from United Against
Nuclear Iran
Iran's
Economy
UANI
Prevents Iran's Participation in an International Oil & Gas
Conference
After being warned by United Against Nuclear Iran (UANI) of potential
exposure to U.S. sanctions, the Scientific Federation's 5th World
Congress & Expo on Oil, Gas & Petroleum Engineering disinvited a
National Iranian Oil Company (NIOC) official from its conference on March
28 and 29. Abdollah Esmaeili, an official at NIOC's National Iranian
South Oil Company, accepted an invitation to be a keynote speaker at the
event to be held in Milan, Italy on March 28 and 29. The organizers
rescinded that offer after UANI warned Esmaeili's participation carried
with it the risk of secondary sanctions on the event, and likely
commercial, financial, legal and reputational fallout from doing business
with Iran's state-owned oil company. The Scientific Federation instead
extended an invite to UANI Board Member and Senior Advisor Ambassador
Giulio Terzi, who previously served as Italy's Minister of Foreign
Affairs and Ambassador to the United States.
On June 21, UANI
commended the Financial Action Task Force (FATF), an intergovernmental
regulatory body that sets standards to protect the integrity of the
global financial system, for requiring increased oversight of financial
institutions based in Iran but urged further action to guard against
money laundering and terror financing. Since June 2016, the FATF had
suspended countermeasures against Iran given that country's political
commitment to address anti-money laundering and counter-terror financing
(AML/CFT) deficiencies in its banking system. "UANI commends the
FATF for imposing new oversight requirements for Iranian banks and
subsidiaries," said UANI CEO Ambassador Mark D. Wallace. "But
the FATF needs to do much more as Iran has failed for three years to fully
comply with its action plan. Countermeasures need to be re-imposed to
protect the integrity of the international financial system. As long as
Iran chooses to remain an extremist regime, it should remain closed for
business."
Media coverage: Voice
of America, CNS
News
Russia,
China Primary Impediments to Iran's Isolation
UANI's report, The Russia-China-Iran Axis, analyzes the
role played by Russia and China in preventing the complete economic
isolation of the Islamic Republic. The EU has created a Special Purpose
Vehicle (SPV), known as INSTEX (Instrument in Support of
Trade Exchanges), to establish a U.S. sanctions-workaround. However, this
will in all likelihood be ineffective. With INSTEX floundering, China and
Russia will look to fill the vacuum created by Europe's retreat from
Iran. "Russia and China have been historic enablers of Iran's malign
behavior and appear eager to continue this disturbing pattern," said
UANI CEO Ambassador Mark D. Wallace. "By increasing their ties to
Iran, both Russia and China are revealing the shallowness of their past
commitments to fighting terrorism and controlling the spread of nuclear
weapons."
Regional Threats
UANI
Launches Eye on Hezbollah, (Hezbollah.org), New Website Focused Exclusively
on Lebanese Terror Group
On April 2, UANI launched a new website, Eye
on Hezbollah, that chronicles the Lebanese Shiite Islamist
terrorist group's evolution from a small radical gang in 1982 to a
virtual "state within a state." Hezbollah, as Iran's primary
proxy, has carried out terrorist attacks against the Islamic Republic's
perceived enemies in Europe and has amassed power in ways that threaten
the future of Lebanon. Through a series of incisive reports and
analyses, Eye on Hezbollah builds a comprehensive
picture of the development and history of the Shiite organization.
Hezbollah has carried out terrorist attacks in Lebanon and abroad, and
its criminal activities extend to Europe and Latin America. Unique
to Eye on Hezbollah is its in-depth examination of
Hezbollah's organizational and leadership structure,
hierarchy, and the key figures directing its military,
political, and social activities. Through a comprehensive timeline that
begins in 1982, visitors to Eye on Hezbollah can also
explore the most significant military and political milestones in the
development of the terrorist group over its nearly 40-year history.
UANI
Chairman Senator Joseph I. Lieberman comments on the IRGC designation in
a Fox News interview: "This was a very good move, a very important move,
the first time that part of a government has been named a terrorist
organization. But the IRGC deserves it. They are a terrorist
organization. They have the blood of hundreds of Americans on their
hands, more than 600 Americans that they or the people they trained
killed in Iraq, the Khobar Towers and a lot of other terrorist
places."
UANI
Warned Tanker Owners of Iran Dangers Prior to Attacks
UANI previously cautioned the owners of both commercial tankers that
were attacked on June 13 of the risks of doing business with Iran. The
two tankers, the Kokuka Courageous and the MT Front Altair, were attacked
in the Gulf of Oman, 25 miles off the southern coast of Iran. The U.S.
government blames Iran for the attacks. "Iran's attacks on oil
tankers traveling through the Gulf of Oman is an unprecedented
provocation," said UANI CEO Ambassador Mark D. Wallace. "The
economic isolation of Iran is a tool of non-military action that is
working. Yet, rather than change its behavior and come to the
bargaining table, Iran acts as the terror state that it is. All
responsible countries should exit Iran's economy and no responsible
business should trade with Iran."
In a
June 14 story regarding skepticism over President Trump's blaming Iran
for the attack on two oil tankers in the Gulf of Oman: "Mark
Wallace, the executive director of United Against Nuclear Iran and a
strong critic of Mr. Obama's nuclear agreement with Iran that Mr. Trump
has since repudiated, said the government needs to rely on its career
professionals to inform the public about Tehran's activities. 'The one
way of doing that is place the burden of persuasion and validating the
facts on the military and intelligence community that at least is more
immune to the politically charged atmosphere that we live in,' said
Mr. Wallace, who was a diplomat at the United Nations under Mr. Bush.
'With Iran, I've been surprised actually that it's been relatively
depoliticized.'"
From
Proxy to Patron: Iran's Relationship with the Palestinian National
Movement
A new UANI resource released in May, From
Proxy to Patron: Iran's Relationship with the Palestinian National
Movement, describes how Tehran seeks an independent Palestinian
state that is hostile towards Israel, and also uses Palestinian
nationalist movements to export its Islamic Revolution. Peace between Palestinians and Israelis
would contradict Iran's narrative that Israel is the cause of all
conflict and instability in the Middle East. Through
its military support to various radical Palestinian factions, Iran has
undercut Israeli-Palestinian peace negotiations at critical junctures.
The resource details how Iran has provided, primarily through Hezbollah,
manpower, money and materiel to armed Palestinian factions and social
support in order to radicalize Palestinian society and exacerbate
rejection of peace with Israel.
The Nuclear File
Rapidly expiring
"sunset provisions" - which will lift existing restrictions on
Iran's military, missiles and nuclear programs - were a key factor in
President Trump's decision to withdraw from the flawed Joint
Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) in May last year. The first of the
sunset provisions, the arms embargo under U.N. Security Council
Resolution (UNSCR) 2231, will expire by October 18, 2020. In its report, JCPOA
Sunset Alert, UANI
details the hazards once UNSCR 2231's arms transfers provisions expire.
Guns, howitzers, mortars, battle tanks, armored combat vehicles, combat
aircraft, attack helicopters, warships and missiles or missile systems
will proliferate throughout the region. The expiration of this arms
embargo will have immediate destabilizing consequences for Yemen,
Bahrain, Lebanon, Syria, Iraq, and Israel. Terror organizations like the
Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps' (IRGC) Quds Force, the Al-Ashtar
Brigades, Hezbollah, Hamas, Palestinian Islamic Jihad, and the Houthis
are the likely beneficiaries of this sunset provision.
Iran's
Enrichment Threat Reveals Fatal Flaw in Nuclear Deal
Responding to Iran's June 18 threat to exceed the limits on its
stockpile of enriched uranium reveals a fatal flaw in the 2015 nuclear
deal that bolsters the need for a fundamental renegotiation of the
agreement, said leaders of United Against Nuclear Iran (UANI). "This
announcement by Iran is another example of why President Trump made the
correct decision to withdraw from the Iran nuclear deal," said UANI
Chairman Senator Joseph I. Lieberman. "The ease with which Iran can
restart and ramp up its nuclear program should alarm the world."
UANI CEO Ambassador Mark D. Wallace said, "The Iran nuclear deal was
fatally flawed from the start. "It left Iran with an industrial
scale nuclear industry that allows Iran to enrich and weaponize at the
time of its choosing. Iran's actions in the last day reveal that
fundamental flaw."
UANI Leadership Updates
Senator
Kelly Ayotte Joins United Against Nuclear Iran As Senior Advisor
UANI announced that former Senator Kelly Ayotte of New Hampshire was
joining the organization as a senior advisor. Senator Ayotte served on
the Senate Armed Services Committee and on the Committee on Homeland
Security "During her tenure in the United States Senate, Ayotte was
a leader in the fight against the Iranian regime. We thank her for
her service and we are thrilled to welcome her to UANI," said UANI
CEO Ambassador Mark D. Wallace.
Op-Eds
UANI
CEO Ambassador Mark D. Wallace, writing in Euronews May 16, warns
multinational corporations in France, Germany and other countries of the
many economic and personal risks associated with attending trade
conferences in Iran.
UANI
Advisory Board Member Senator Mark S. Kirk and CEO Ambassador
Mark D. Wallace write in the Chicago Tribune: "In recent
years, the myth of moderation has become a go-to refrain for those who
have built careers out of making excuses for the Iranian regime. But the
mullahcracy in Tehran has continued its decades long history of trampling
on human rights."
Op-ed:
Trump's Withdrawal From The Iran Nuclear Deal Has Been Vindicated
UANI President David Ibsen writes for NBCNews.com that on the
one year anniversary of President Trump's withdrawal from the Iran
nuclear deal, "war hasn't broken out
and it's worth looking at what has - and hasn't - happened for a
clear-eyed assessment of the president's 'maximum
pressure' strategy."
UANI
Advisory Board Member Ray Takeyh and Reuel Marc Gerecht of the Foundation
for Defense of Democracies argue that the Iranian is in a politically
precarious position and pressure is working.
Op-ed:
A Deal Trump and Khamenei Could Make
UANI Advisory Board Member Dennis Ross notes in this May 29 opinion
piece that while Iran insists it won't negotiate with the U.S. under
pressure, it has done so in the past and may again.
UANI Research Analyst on Lebanon and Hezbollah David
Daoud writes about the psychological warfare Lebanese terror group
Hezbollah has carried out against Israel's armed forces since its
inception 37 years ago and the impact it continues to have.
UANI
Research Director Daniel Roth highlights the bizarre and Orwellian claim
by Iranian officials that a visit to the Islamic Republic is as safe as a
weekend sojourn to Stockholm.
Blog:
The Myth of Hezbollah's May 2000 Victory
UANI Research Analyst on Lebanon and Hezbollah David Daoud explains
how complex domestic Israeli factors - not Hezbollah's fighting prowess,
caused the IDF to withdraw from Lebanon on May 25, 2000.
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