UANI Urges New York Assembly and Senate to Pass Iran Debarment Legislation

Bill to be Introduced Tomorrow by Assembly Speaker Silver

New York, NY - On Wednesday, United Against Nuclear Iran (UANI) called on members of New York's State Legislature to enact legislation, to be introduced tomorrow by Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver, barring companies that do business in Iran's energy sector from receiving contracts from the State of New York.

This year, UANI wrote to Speaker Silver and others, urging him to adapt UANI model legislation, and prevent companies that do business in Iran from receiving New York state tax dollars. Speaker Silver will be introducing such legislation tomorrow.

Said UANI President, Ambassador Mark D. Wallace, who in August wrote the Op-Ed "Time Has Come for States to Take Strong Action on Iran":

UANI applauds Speaker Silver for introducing contract debarment legislation, and we urge New York's legislature to pass it quickly. New York can join California and Florida in pressuring multinational companies to end their business in Iran.

By forcing corporations to choose between the U.S. and Iran, states and municipalities can send a unified message to the Iranian regime that the American people will not stand by as Iran continues to pursue nuclear weapons, kill U.S. soldiers on the battlefields of Iraq and Afghanistan, sponsor terrorists around the world, and plot attacks on U.S. soil.

California and Florida have already passed Iran debarment legislation, adapted from UANI model legislation. UANI unveiled the "Iran Business Certification Act" in June 2009, which shortly thereafter was introduced in U.S. Congress as the "Accountability for Business Choices in Iran Act."

As the Financial Times reported this year, California has been enforcing its law, the 2010 Iran Contracting Act, and has succeeded in pressuring several multinational corporations to end their business in Iran. Recently, the State of California published a list of companies now prohibited from doing business with California due to their work in Iran.

Click here to visit UANI's model legislation home page.

Click here to read Ambassador Wallace's Op-Ed, "Time Has Come for States to Take Strong Action on Iran."

###

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.