In Case You Missed It: "United Against Nuclear Iran ... Led a Spirited Campaign Calling for Fiat to Exit the Iranian Market"
UANI Fiat Campaign Success Featured in the Associated Press, Dow Jones, FoxNews.com, The Wall Street Journal, MLive.com, CarScoop
Italian automaker Fiat halts sales to Iran
By Colleen Barry
May 25, 2012
MILAN
- Italian automaker Fiat SpA, which controls Chrysler, said Friday that
it and subsidiaries will immediately halt sales to Iran, following
similar moves by other carmakers under pressure to cut ties to Tehran
over its disputed nuclear program.
The
international community has been toughening sanctions on the Islamic
Republic - including on its main cash cow, oil - because of fears that
it plans to build nuclear weapons. Iran says its nuclear program is
peaceful.
The
auto industry has been under pressure from the anti-nuclear lobby group
United Against Nuclear Iran to cut off business dealings with Iran.
UANI says that the global auto industry is the second-largest source of
foreign currency for the Iranian government, after oil, and also a
source of foreign technology.
The
decision by Fiat to halt sales "is a step in the right direction, and
it shows the effectiveness of public pressure against these companies,"
UANI spokesman Nathan Carleton said from New York. ...
The
announcement follows similar ones in recent months by French automaker
PSA Peugeot Citroen SA, which has entered an alliance with General
Motors Co., South Korean automaker Hyundai and German sports carmaker
Porsche.
More
than a dozen foreign automakers continue to do business with Iran, said
UANI, which noted that Iran's auto industry is the 13th largest in the
world, producing 1.6 million vehicles in 2011.
"No
car company should be doing business in Iran," Carleton said. "The
international community is trying to isolate the Iranian regime from the
rest of the world, and any company doing business with Iran is
providing a lifeline."
Click here to read the full article.
Fiat Ban On Sales To Iran Seen As Victory In Sanctions Campaign
By Bob Tita
May 25, 2012
Supporters
of trade sanctions against Iran said Friday that Italian auto maker
Fiat SpA's (F.MI) decision to stop doing business in Iran represented a
major victory in a campaign to align European companies against Iran's
nuclear program and human-rights violations. ...
United
Against Nuclear Iran, a New York-based lobbying group, said Fiat's
decision is a milestone in its campaign to convince multinational
corporations to stop selling products in Iran.
"We
welcome this announcement and are pleased that Fiat's subsidiary Iveco
will no longer sell trucks to the Iranian regime, which has used them to
transport ballistic missiles and perform gruesome public executions,"
the group said in a written statement.
United
Against Nuclear Iran also has been waging a "Cranes Campaign" against
companies whose machinery in Iran is used in executions where the
condemned are hung from cranes and their bodies left to dangle for
public display. The group has used public-pressure tactics against
several U.S. companies in recent years that it viewed as skirting a U.S.
prohibition against domestic companies selling directly to Iranian
customers.
Caterpillar
Inc. (CAT), Ingersoll-Rand PLC (IR), General Electric Co. (GE), Terex
Corp. (TEX) and Huntsman Corp. (HUN) are among the U.S. companies that
have moved to cut off overseas subsidiaries and independent dealers with
sales ties to Iranian customers.
The
group said European and Asian companies have started to follow suit
after largely resisting pressure from the group in the past.
"Things
are really changing and a lot of it has to do with the European Union
getting more serious" about Iran's nuclear program, said Nathan
Carleton, a spokesman for United Against Nuclear Iran. "It's a different
climate than it was a year ago."
Carleton
said Fiat joins rival auto makers Porsche Automobil Holding SE in
Germany and South Korea's Hyundai Motor Co. in recently disclosing that
they will cease sales to Iran.
Carleton
said the group intends to remain vigilant about monitoring Fiat's
business activities in Iran, noting that other companies have used
existing contracts with dealers and distributors to maintain a presence
in Iran long after announcing an end to direct sales activities.
"We're going to keep an eye on it," he said. ...
Click here to read the full article.
Bowing to pressure, Fiat halts sales to Iran
May 25, 2012
After facing an onslaught of criticism that even involved Jennifer Lopez, Fiat has announced that it is halting sales to Iran.
The
Italian automaker, which controls Chrysler, said in a statement on
Friday that it "supports international efforts for a diplomatic
solution" regarding Iran. The international community in the last year
has been increasing diplomatic and economic pressure on Iran to back
down on its nuclear program.
Singer
Lopez had been repeatedly asked by United Against Nuclear Iran to
renounce her relationship with Fiat after filming a series of
commercials for the Fiat 500 minicar last year. ...
Fiat Industrial heavy truck, agricultural and construction vehicles said it also was stopping sales to Iran.
Fiat's
announcement follows similar ones by Hyundai and Porsche. The auto
industry has been under pressure from the anti-nuclear lobby group,
United Against Nuclear Iran, to cut ties with the regime.
Click here to read the full article.
Fiat Slams Brake On Sales To Iran
By Samuel Rubenfeld
May 25, 2012
Italian
automaker Fiat SpA and its sister company Fiat Industrial SpA said
Friday they would stop doing business in Iran in line with a trade
embargo imposed by the West. ...
Fiat exports cars to Iran while Fiat Industrial exports buses and trucks under its Iveco brand. ...
United
Against Nuclear Iran, a U.S.-based pressure group, has led a spirited
campaign calling for Fiat to exit the Iranian market. For the past year,
the group placed advertisements in New York newspapers, and it held a
protest at the New York International Auto show.
"Fiat
has finally made the responsible decision to end its most egregious
ties with the Iranian regime," said Nathan Carleton, a spokesman for
United Against Nuclear Iran, in an email. "We call on Fiat to now fully
end all of its business in Iran, including the sale and manufacturing of
all Fiat and Maserati vehicles."
Click here to read the full article.
Fiat joins other automakers, suspends sales to Iran
By Michael Wayland
May 25, 2012
Fiat SpA today said it will suspend sales to Iran. ...
Fiat's announcement follows similar ones from other automakers, such as Hyundai and Porsche.
According
to the Associated Press, the auto industry has been under pressure from
the anti-nuclear lobby group, United Against Nuclear Iran, to cut ties
with the regime.
UANI
CEO Mark Wallace spoke earlier this year about UANI's Auto Campaign
before a hearing on Iran sanctions held by the House Committee on
Foreign Affairs (video embedded above).
Fiat
said sales to Iran in previous years "were totally immaterial in a
quantitative and qualitative sense and any concerned products were sold
for commercial and civilian use only."
In
April, Fox News reported Iran's auto industry, which has business
relationships with Nissan, Fiat, Volvo and Peugeot, employs thousands of
workers and exports vehicles to more than 30 countries. ...
Click here to read the full article.
Fiat Group Suspends Vehicle and Components Sales in Iran
May 25, 2012
Evidently,
the Fiat Group has succumbed to international pressure to stop doing
business in Iran, joining the ranks of other automakers like Porsche and
Hyundai, both of which recently suspended sales in the country.
"Fiat
supports the international efforts for a diplomatic solution of the
issues relating to the relations with Iran," the Italian company said in
a statement.
"In
this respect, Fiat announces that effective immediately its
subsidiaries will no longer carry out business activity related to
products or components where the ultimate destination of such products
is known to be Iran, other than to the limited extent required to
fulfill already existing binding obligations," Fiat added.
Back
in January, a non-profit, anti-Iran group in the States, blasted
Jennifer Lopez for promoting the Fiat 500, because it claimed, the
automaker continued to do business with the country.
"By
endorsing Fiat, you are serving as a spokesperson for a company that
freely does business with a regime that is developing an illegal nuclear
weapons program, financing and sponsoring terrorist groups including
al-Qaeda, has killed American and NATO soliders and is recognized as one
of the world's leading human rights violators," said the United Against
Nuclear Iran (UANI) group in an open letter to Lopez.
Click here to read the full article.
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