UANI Calls on South Africa's Sasol to Leave Iran, or Risk Loss of U.S. Business and Tax Benefits

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE July 10, 2013  Contact: Nathan Carleton, press@uani.com  Phone: (212) 554-3296   UANI Calls on South Africa's Sasol to Leave Iran, or Risk Loss of U.S. Business and Tax Benefits Nineteen Months have Now Passed since Sasol Pledged to Divest from Country New York, NY - Today, United Against Nuclear Iran (UANI) continued its Sasol campaign by once again calling on the South African energy giant to immediately end its business in Iran, where it remains active nineteen months after pledging to leave. Sasol continues to delay its exit from Iran, at the same time that it invests in the U.S. energy sector and lobbies U.S. officials for tax breaks. Sasol maintains a joint venture with a sanctioned Iranian entity that operates two polyethylene plants in Iran. Sasol announced in October 2011 its intention to divest, but has failed to follow through on that commitment. In a recent conference call for shareholders, Sasol's Chief Financial Officer Christine Ramon confirmed that Sasol has still not pulled out of Iran. Yet Sasol has committed to extensive business operations in the United States, including building a multi-billion dollar gas-to-liquids plant in Louisiana. Further, Sasol appears to be conducting a U.S. lobbying campaign to obtain eligibility for certain tax subsidies under Section 6426 of the Internal Revenue Code (IRC). Sasol's purported effort to have gas-to-liquids fuel included as a qualified alternative fuel under the IRC could result in hundreds of millions of dollars of tax savings for the company. UANI finds it highly troubling that Sasol would lobby for such benefits at a time when it is still engaged in an ongoing partnership with a regime that is the world's leading state sponsor of terrorism and responsible for the deaths of U.S. troops. In a letter to Sasol executives, UANI CEO, Ambassador Mark D. Wallace, wrote: ...UANI was troubled by Sasol's transcribed conference call of June 10, 2013, which confirmed Sasol's ongoing business activities in the Iranian energy sector through Arya Sasol Polymer Company - a $900 million joint venture between Sasol and Iran's state-owned and sanctioned National Petrochemical Company ("NPC"). ...               ... The insertion of the subordinate clause - "albeit slower than we initially anticipated" - is a prime illustration of Sasol's penchant for dissembling on the issue of its partnership with regime-controlled entities in Iran's petrochemical sector. Clearly, in light of the fact that Sasol first announced its intention to divest from its Iran venture as far back as November 2011, as well as the fact that Iran's petrochemical sector has been effectively blacklisted by the U.S., the extensive delay in Sasol's execution of its divestment from Iran is incomprehensible and unacceptable.             ... In the January 2013 letter, UANI stated: "...fourteen months have already passed since Sasol's intention to divest its Iran business first became public." Incredibly, that statement must now be revised to read "nineteen months have already passed since Sasol's intention to divest its Iran business first became public." Sasol's self-serving announcement that it has signed a Memorandum of Understanding with an anonymous and unnamed "interested party" regarding the potential sale of its stake in its NPC partnership is hardly a substitute for substantive and conclusive action to resolve the outstanding concerns regarding Sasol's Iran business. ...             ... Sasol's apparent ongoing campaign to obtain eligibility for certain tax subsidies under section 6426 of the Internal Revenue Code (IRC) could be complicated by its extensive and ongoing Iran business. ... It is highly doubtful that U.S. officials and the American public will be sympathetic to Sasol's lobbying efforts to secure special tax benefits at a time when Sasol is engaged in an ongoing partnership with a regime that is the world's leading state sponsor of terrorism and responsible for the deaths of countless U.S. personnel in Iraq, Afghanistan and Lebanon.               Put simply, it is shameful for Sasol to directly support the Iranian regime while simultaneously lobbying U.S. officials to secure U.S. federal tax breaks. It has now been more than 19 months since Sasol announced its intention to leave Iran. Please be advised that as a result of the foregoing, as well as Sasol's singular obfuscations and delaying tactics, UANI will do everything in its power to ensure that relevant legislative and regulatory authorities in the U.S., as well as the American public at large, are appropriately apprised of Sasol's extensive Iran business operations in sanctioned sectors of the Iranian economy. ... Since January, UANI has been publicly calling on Sasol to pull out of Iran. On February 2, 2013, the Shreveport Times published a UANI Op-Ed highlighting Sasol's business with the Iranian regime, and Sasol's failure to end that business. In April, UANI put up a billboard near Sasol's Louisiana offices, reading "BEFORE YOU BUILD HERE, STOP BUILDING IN IRAN. SASOL MUST CHOOSE: LOUISIANA OR IRAN'S TERRORIST REGIME." UANI's billboard was reported as the lead story on the local KPLC-NBC "7News at Six" in Lake Charles. Click here to read UANI's full letter to Sasol. Click here to see KPLC's report about UANI's Sasol billboard. Click here to view a graphic of UANI's Sasol billboard. Click here to read Ambassador Wallace's Shreveport Times Op-Ed, "Make La. Iran-free energy zone." Click here to send a message to Sasol. ###  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.

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