Right Web

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United against Nuclear Iran (UANI) claims to be “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.” A program of the American Coalition Against Nuclear Iran, Inc., a 501(c)(3) organization, UANI’s aims include informing “the public about the nature of the Iranian regime”; heightening “awareness nationally and internationally about the danger that a nuclear-armed Iran poses to the region and the world”; persuading “the regime in Tehran to desist from its quest for nuclear weapons, while striving not to punish the Iranian people”; and promoting “efforts that focus on vigorous national and international, social, economic, political, and diplomatic measures.”[1]

UANI claims to have a multi-pronged approach to isolating the Iranian regime economically and diplomatically, primarily by discouraging or preventing corporations from doing business in the country. In addition to pressuring businesses directly, UANI advocates legislative measures to bar companies that do business in Iran from receiving government contracts and organizes petitions and protests aimed at specific companies. UANI claims credit for persuading "such corporate heavyweights as General Electric, Huntsman, Caterpillar, Ingersoll Rand, KPMG, Komatsu" to suspend their Iran business, as well as for securing legislative victories in California, New York, and Florida.[2] In a related campaign, UANI has attempted to pressure New York hotels to deny lodging to Iranian officials visiting the city for UN business, including President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.[3]

In January 2010, UANI followed up on earlier initiatives aimed at pressuring companies to stop doing business in Iran by launching the “Iran Disclosure Project,” described by UANI as “an initiative to identify publicly-traded companies that have business dealings in Iran and ensure that such companies adequately inform investors of the legal and financial peril associated with such dealings.”[4]

The first target of the program was Royal Dutch Shell. UANI sent the company’s CEO, Peter Voser, a letter in mid-December 2009 claiming Shell had revealed “only cursory disclosures regarding [its] dealings with Iran, disclosures that certainly provide less information to investors than is required by the U.S. securities laws.” The letter warned, “In the event Royal Dutch Shell continues its business operations in Iran and fails to adequately disclose the risks of such business, UANI will pursue appropriate legal action against Royal Dutch Shell, will call on the New York Stock Exchange and the London Stock Exchange to delist Royal Dutch Shell and will assist the many Royal Dutch shareholders who oppose Royal Dutch Shell's activities in Iran."[5]

In addition to its business-oriented work, UANI also publishes reports and talking points on Iran and its alleged nuclear weapons program, promoting notions that the Center for Research on Globalization has characterized as "propagandistic."[6] Among many other claims, UANI asserts that Iran is actively developing "nuclear weapons capability" and suggests that the country may have been connected to the 9/11 attacks—both notions that have been strongly disputed by U.S. intelligence experts.[7]

Although UANI has generally avoided open calls for war against Iran, the group has on occasion explicitly promoted the use of military threats or action. In October 2011, for example, after an Iranian-American was arrested for an alleged plot to assassinate the Saudi ambassador to the United States in Washington, UANI called on President Barack Obama to “make it clear that Iran will face consequences for its actions, including military retaliation for attacks on Americans.”[8]

Ideological Connections and Funding

UANI claims to have a politically centrist position, and its advisory board has a number of well regarded academics and political centrists, including Graham Allison, Walter Russell Meade, and Leslie Gelb.

However, the board’s membership has been heavily weighted with neoconservatives and rightwing nationalists, including: James Woolsey, a former CIA director and high-profile neoconservative activist; Roger Noriega, a former U.S. representative to the U.S. Mission of the Organization of American States; Henry Sokolski, a hawkish strategic weapons expert; Mike Gerson, a torture advocate and former spokesperson for President Bush; Mark Lagon, a former State Department official whose experience also includes having served as an aide to Jeane Kirkpatrick at the American Enterprise Institute and supporting the work of the notorious neoconservative letterhead group the Project for the New American Century; and Otto Reich, a controversial Reagan-era figure implicated in the Iran-Contra scandal who maintains close ties to right-wing factions in Latin America.[9]

UANI’s CEO is Mark Wallace, a former U.S. diplomat at the United Nations, legal adviser to the Department of Homeland Security, and deputy campaign manager for the 2004 reelection campaign of President Bush and Vice President Dick Cheney. The group advertises two original cofounders, both of whom were given high profile posts in the administration of President Barack Obama: the late Richard Holbrooke and the controversial “pro-Israel” U.S diplomat Dennis Ross.[10]

UANI also claims to represent a coalition of like-minded advocacy organizations. Coalition members, according to its website, include Christian Leaders for a Nuclear-Free Iran, the American Iranian Democracy Initiative, the Democratic Party of Iranian Kurdistan, the Iran Task Force, Iran Watch, the Free Muslims Coalition, the Progressive American-Iranian Committee, the Wisconsin Project on Nuclear Arms Control, the Arcadia Foundation, and the Nonproliferation Policy Education Center. Other partners include neoconservative groups like the Foundation for Defense of Democracies and Réalité-EU, as well as Republican groups like the Log Cabin Republicans.[11]

UANI reported over $900,000in contributions in 2011,[12] down from a peak of over $2.7 million in 2009.[13]

Ad Campaign

UANI made headlines in mid-2009 when it began running an ad on cable news channels that pushed the Obama administration to take a tougher line on Iran. The narrator of the 30-second ad, titled “Unclenched Fist,” says, “This is Iran. Young, vibrant—a people Americans have no quarrel with. Unfortunately, this is also Iran—radical rulers seeking nuclear weapons, threatening the world. Americans can do something about it. We can put economic pressure on the Iranian regime—pressure to keep them from building a nuclear arsenal. And that will ensure security—for all of us.”[14]

The fact that the ad, which represented an implicit criticism of the Obama administration’s policy of engagement with Iran, was run by a group that highlights the role of two Obama administration diplomats raised questions among some observers. Wrote Robet Silverstien of Tikun Olam, “I’m shocked that [Dennis] Ross wouldn’t have completely dissociated himself from this group considering his government role, and the fact that UANI is advocating a position that not only is dangerous and contrary to current U.S. policy, but mirrors Israel’s interests and the goals of its military and intelligence apparatus.”[15]

Explaining the ad, UANI’s Wallace told Politico, “[Obama] offered an unclenched fist. Now it is up to the Iranian people and regime to extend a reciprocal open hand.” He added that the Iranian people should “put pressure on their leadership” in the then- upcoming elections.[16]

UANI’s activities also include promoting the work of other organizations advocating a tough line on Iran, pressuring businesses not to work with the country by publishing an “Iran Business Directory” that lists companies doing business in Iran, circulating petitions, and publicizing human rights violations committed by the Iranian government. UANI also publishes a newsletter entitled Eyes on Iran, which provides summaries of news stories focusing on Iran.

Please note: IPS Right Web neither represents nor endorses any of the individuals or groups profiled on this site.