UANI Statement on the Euromoney Iran Conference


For Immediate Release
May 18, 2016
Contact: [email protected]

UANI Statement on the Euromoney Iran Conference

New York, NY - United Against Nuclear Iran (UANI) released the following statement today ahead of the Euromoney Iran Conference, to be held in London on May 19. As Iranian and international bank executives gather to discuss Iran's reintegration into the global capital market, UANI warns of severe risks that remain for foreign companies in Iran, as well as the unbalanced nature of the conference agenda.

"The Euromoney Iran Conference claims to provide a platform for discussion among policymakers, businesses, and investors to identify and resolve challenges in Iran's banking sector. In reality, the forum is a platform that unduly rewards Iran for ongoing bad behavior," said UANI Chairman, Sen. Joseph I. Lieberman and UANI CEO, Ambassador Mark D. Wallace. "Business risks in Iran loom large for companies and banks planning to attend the conference. The Euromoney Iran Conference ignores these risks, encouraging companies to pursue investments that could entangle them in an extended web of sanctions violations, money laundering, and terrorism-financing."

UANI reminds the global community that the event's co-hosts, which include the Central Bank of the Islamic Republic of Iran, Bank Pasargad, and Saman Bank, are entities whose property remains blocked in the United States. Just yesterday, the International Monetary Fund's First Deputy Managing Director David Lipton stressed that Iran must first take steps to fix its broken banking system and address its serious money laundering and terrorism-financing deficiencies before it is able to win over international business.

When UANI requested that Radek Sikorski, former Polish Foreign Minister and UANI Advisory Board Member, speak at the conference in order to offer an opposing viewpoint, the Conference rejected the request, as well as his opportunity to attend, silencing the chance for a legitimate debate--tactics that parallel those employed by the Iranian regime.

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About UANI

UANI is an independent, not-for-profit, non-partisan, advocacy group founded in 2008 by Ambassador Mark D. Wallace, Ambassador Richard Holbrooke, former CIA Director Jim Woolsey, and Middle East Expert Ambassador Dennis Ross, that seeks to heighten awareness of the danger the Iranian regime poses to the world.