kaplan, thomas

<font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"></font><div><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">no lnx</font></div><div><a href="https://www.salon.com/2014/08/11/billionaires_sketchy_middle_east_gamble_meet_the_man_betting_on_war_with_iran/"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" color="#000000">https://www.salon.com/2014/08/11/billionaires_sketchy_middle_east_gamble_meet_the_man_betting_on_war_with_iran/</font></a></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">thomas S. Kaplan (YouTube/The Economist)</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b>Billionaire's sketchy Middle East gamble: Meet the man betting on war with Iran</b></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b>Thomas Kaplan has made a ton of money by making high-priced wagers. But never quite like this</b></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">ELI CLIFTON</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">AUGUST 11, 2014 3:44PM (UTC)</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">On the same evening last November that world powers announced an interim deal with Iran, halting its nuclear progress in exchange for a modest easing of sanctions, United Against Nuclear Iran (UANI) put out a statement complaining that the agreement was a “disappointment” and “provides disproportionate sanctions relief to Iran.” The group’s executive director, former U.S. diplomat Mark Wallace, suggested that no sanctions relief was appropriate as part of an interim deal: “By rolling back sanctions now, the international community is significantly lessening the pressure on Iran's economy.”</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">That same group, at the end of July, turned up in a bit of intrigue: the New York Times revealed that the Justice Department had stepped in to a defamation suit against UANI to prevent the disclosure of documents revealing the group’s donors, among other information. UANI serves as a key pressure group for the enforcement of sanctions, frequently issuing reports and press releases about companies doing illicit business with Iran.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">The Times reported that lawyers representing Greek shipping magnate Victor Restis, the plaintiff in the suit, accused UANI of receiving foreign funding and shaking down companies for donations. UANI had earlier accused Restis and his company of being “front men for the illicit activities of the Iranian regime.”</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">But it remains unclear what potential revelations the Justice Department is concerned about.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 204, 102);">Among the pieces of heretofore undisclosed information the Justice Department’s shield might prevent from coming to light is the connection between UANI and one of the biggest investors in precious metals, Thomas S. Kaplan. <b>Kaplan has emerged as one of the business world’s most outspoken proponents of investing in gold and other precious metals, investments he says will retain or appreciate in value during periods of political and economic unrest.</b></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">The nature of Kaplan’s ties to UANI aren’t entirely clear, but the links are apparent: Kaplan’s investment operations have shared several employees with UANI over the past six years, notably including<b> UANI’s Wallace, who controls several mining ventures through the Tigris Financial Group with the billionaire. </b>Together, the pair are betting big on investments in precious metals they say will retain or appreciate in value in an unstable economic and geopolitical environment. By Tigris’ own account, it stands to make money in the case of “political unrest in the Middle East” — exactly the kind of instability many experts think will become inevitable if naysayers of diplomacy with Iran have their way.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">UANI and its allies “play the politics for the short-term but they don't offer anything in terms of answers for the long-term," a former Obama administration official who worked closely on Middle East policy told Salon. "You get the sense that ... they're not really interested in ensuring that Iran does not acquire a nuclear weapon. Iran bashing for pro-Israel groups is very common, but I'm concerned that they don't understand that failure to <b>address this issue will ensure that Iran gets the bomb or we're headed toward war. And a war in this region at this time will look more like World War III than a ‘cakewalk.’”</b></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">Founded in 2008, UANI hosts a powerhouse advisory board of former politicians, intelligence officials and policy experts — <b>including former intelligence chiefs from Germany, Israel and the U.K.; Wallace is frequently cited in major media outlets, and all three outside witnesses scheduled to appear at a recent Senate Foreign Relations committee hearing</b> are affiliated with UANI (one did not attend, reportedly due to illness).</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b>
</b></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b>According to tax filings, Wallace, a former George W. Bush-appointed U.S. ambassador to the U.N.,</b> hasn’t drawn a salary from UANI since the group paid him $93,744 in 2008 and $10,416 in 2009, although he has testified three times before Congress as a UANI official.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">But Wallace, according to UANI’s website, holds another, likely more lucrative position, serving as the CEO of the Tigris Financial Group, an investment group controlled by Kaplan.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">The connection between UANI and a billionaire gold evangelist might seem strange, but Kaplan’s promotion of precious metals is often coupled with dire predictions about coming geopolitical unrest.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b>Kaplan, a Francophile New York philanthropist with a penchant for large cats, enthusiastically urges investors to put their money in gold and silver to hedge against political and economic instability. He advocates buying silver and gold as the only safe investment in an uncertain world.</b></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">A 2010 Wall Street Journal profile of Kaplan — headlined “A Billionaire Goes All-In on Gold” — described Kaplan’s investment as a “nearly $2 billion bet on gold, more than the Brazilian central Bank’s bullion is currently worth.”</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">The 2002 annual report for Kaplan’s Apex Silver Mines, Ltd., which has since gone bankrupt, contained an insight into his thinking. The report, issued by Kaplan and Apex’s CEO, Keith R. Hulley, asks investors to “consider the following factors: destabilization in the Middle East and Persian Gulf, tensions between India and Pakistan, the potential for nuclear confrontation with North Korea and Iran, [...] religious extremism and terrorism on a global scale and corporate hooliganism.”</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">The solution, explained Kaplan, is that the “trend to invest in companies with real assets and exposure to the non-correlated commodities sector is likely to prove to be long-term and secular rather than cyclical.”</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b>In other words, if you believe political instability is likely, invest in assets like those mined by Apex.</b></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b>And Wallace, as CEO of Tigris, oversaw similar language in a 2011 prospectus — after his stint with UANI commenced — for the Sunshine Silver Mine Corp., an Idaho mine owned by the group,</b> which he played an active role in acquiring. “Investment demand for silver exposure remains strong,” said the prospectus, which was filed with the SEC, “driven in part by continued U.S. dollar weakness, ongoing economic uncertainty in Europe and political unrest in the Middle East.”</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Ties between UANI and Kaplan, however, go beyond Wallace’s double role as the head of UANI and the CEO of Tigris.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">At least two individuals other than Wallace served in full-time or advisory roles concurrently at the <b>Electrum Group,</b> a Kaplan-controlled company, and UANI. Another Electrum employee started as an intern with UANI.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">According to his LinkedIn profile, lawyer Steven S. Drachman worked as the chief compliance officer of Electrum from January 2012 to March 2013. Since April 2013, he has served as a “senior consultant” to various companies, including UANI. (Drachman declined to comment about his role at both organizations.)</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Lara Pham’s LinkedIn profile showed she worked as an analyst at the Electrum Group from February 2009 to August 2013 and as director of operations of UANI from January 2012 to October 2013.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Eugene Kim’s profile shows he was a summer intern at UANI from June to July 2009, and went on to work as an associate at Electrum from July 2011 to July 2014. (Neither Pham nor Kim responded to requests for comment.)</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Though Kaplan isn’t listed anywhere on UANI’s public disclosures or on the group’s website, he acknowledged his connection to the anti-Iran group while receiving the French Legion of Honor insignia from French Ambassador François Delattre in April in New York.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">“A friend's comment that one day our kids might ask us what our generation did when we knew what the Iranians' intentions were prompted me to become part of something bigger,” he said, his words appearing only in a video recording of the event. “Hard to know what the outcome will be but I do know that as much as United Against Nuclear Iran may not have had Tomahawk missiles and aircraft carriers at its disposal, we've done more to bring Iran to heel than any other private sector initiative and most public ones.”</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">The published transcript of his remarks contained no mention of UANI or the comparison of the group’s work to advanced weaponry, presumably to be directed at Iran’s nuclear facilities.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">UANI and the Tigris Financial Group did not respond to requests for comment.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Indeed, Kaplan has been a devoted philanthropist to various Jewish and Israel-related causes, and his commitment to stopping what he believes is Iran’s push for a nuclear weapon is not inconsistent with the ideology he expressed at the award ceremony. But that doesn’t contradict the other, well recorded, set of facts: Kaplan and Wallace are betting big on a series of investments that they say will appreciate in or retain value if there is instability in the Middle East. And UANI, a group that has relentlessly criticized the Obama administration’s efforts to reach a diplomatic compromise with Iran, is tightly tied to the individuals and companies that are making those bets.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">ELI CLIFTON</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Eli Clifton is a fellow with the Investigative Fund at the Nation Institute.</font></div></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">==
</font><div><a href="https://theintercept.com/2019/11/27/iran-environmentalists-panthera-thomas-kaplan/"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" color="#000000">https://theintercept.com/2019/11/27/iran-environmentalists-panthera-thomas-kaplan/</font></a></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">in&nbsp;<span style="box-sizing: border-box; font-weight: bold; letter-spacing: 0.1em; box-shadow: white 0px 1px 0px, rgb(17, 17, 17) 0px 4px 0px; text-transform: uppercase;">SEPTEMBER 2017,</span><span style="letter-spacing: 0.01em;">&nbsp;</span><span style="letter-spacing: 0.01em;">a group of Iranian environmentalists working on Asiatic cheetah preservation with the Persian Wildlife Heritage Foundation felt a pang of alarm.&nbsp;Thomas S. Kaplan, a billionaire precious metals investor then best known for his</span><span style="letter-spacing: 0.01em;">&nbsp;</span><a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2017/05/08/arts/thomas-kaplan-leiden-collection-old-masters.html" style="letter-spacing: 0.01em; box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; text-decoration-line: none;">fine art collection</a><span style="letter-spacing: 0.01em;">, had just made a surprise public appearance in New York at the annual conference of United Against Nuclear</span><span style="letter-spacing: 0.01em;">&nbsp;</span><span class="c-mrkdwn__highlight" style="letter-spacing: 0.01em; box-sizing: border-box;">Iran</span><span style="letter-spacing: 0.01em;">. The Iranian environmentalists were concerned because their group had gotten aid from one of Kaplan’s nonpolitical charities. Now, he was speaking before a group that was extremely hostile to their&nbsp;country.</span></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.01em; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">
</span></font></div><div data-reactid="211" style="box-sizing: border-box;"><p style="box-sizing: border-box; line-height: 1.5; margin: 0px 0px 1em; letter-spacing: 0.01em;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">They were right to be alarmed. Within a few months, several of the group’s members would find themselves behind bars — hit with espionage charges by Iran’s notorious judiciary.</font></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; line-height: 1.5; margin: 0px 0px 1em; letter-spacing: 0.01em;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b>Last&nbsp;week, in a closed-door trial that has been criticized for violating due process standards, eight&nbsp;defendants were found guilty on&nbsp;charges of collaborating with an “enemy state,</b>”&nbsp;<a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/middle_east/iranian-environmentalists-sentenced-to-prison-for-collaborating-with-us/2019/11/20/f940c1b0-0ba7-11ea-8054-289aef6e38a3_story.html" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; text-decoration-line: none;">according</a>&nbsp;to the Washington Post. Six of the eight were sentenced to between six and 10 years in prison, and&nbsp;sentences for the others remain unclear. The case will now likely head to appeal, where advocates for the environmentalists hope that the verdict will be overturned. In either case, their ordeal seems nowhere near its end: The guilty verdict&nbsp;looks to be just another waypoint in a saga that began two harrowing years ago.</font></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; line-height: 1.5; margin: 0px 0px 1em; letter-spacing: 0.01em;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b>Kaplan’s ties to United Against Nuclear Iran had apparently not been clear to the environmentalists until&nbsp;his 2017 appearance at the&nbsp;conference.</b> Founded in 2008, UANI, as the group is known, is a hawkish advocacy group that led the campaign against the Iran nuclear deal and promotes aggressive U.S. policies toward Iran. Though Kaplan’s ties to UANI were&nbsp;<a href="https://www.salon.com/2014/08/11/billionaires_sketchy_middle_east_gamble_meet_the_man_betting_on_war_with_iran/" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; text-decoration-line: none;">known</a>, they had not been widely publicized. But at the group’s&nbsp;<a href="https://www.unitedagainstnucleariran.com/uani-iran-summit" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; text-decoration-line: none;">confab in 2017</a>, held at the swanky Roosevelt Hotel in Manhattan, Kaplan publicly discussed his&nbsp;role as one of the organization’s major funders.</font></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; line-height: 1.5; margin: 0px 0px 1em; letter-spacing: 0.01em;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.01em;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">In a short speech introducing a panel of speakers — including former CIA director and U.S. military commander <b>David Petraeus,</b> former Saudi intelligence chief Prince Turki al-Faisal, and former U.S.-Middle East peace negotiator Dennis Ross — <b>Kaplan compared contemporary Iran to the expansionist empires of Persian antiquity. </b>In his remarks, he colorfully described the country as a “reticulated python” devouring the other countries of the Middle East. He further suggested that Iran’s Shiite Muslim beliefs led it to pursue a strategy of “taqiyya,” or religious dissimulation, allowing it to conceal its true imperial aims.</font></span></p></div><div data-reactid="222" style="box-sizing: border-box;"><p style="box-sizing: border-box; line-height: 1.5; margin: 0px 0px 1em; letter-spacing: 0.01em;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">The gathering was a shot across the bow of Iran’s leadership, coming less than a year after Donald Trump was elected president on a promise to get tough against the Islamic Republic. Appearing at the UANI&nbsp;event was a significant political coming out for a wealthy philanthropist like Kaplan. His support of a group pushing confrontation with Iran suddenly put him at the heart of one of the most sensitive foreign policy issues in the United States.&nbsp;But inside Iran, Kaplan’s speech sowed distress among a group of people who had nothing to do with&nbsp;his high-stakes game of geopolitics.</font></p></div><div data-reactid="226" style="box-sizing: border-box;"><p style="box-sizing: border-box; line-height: 1.5; margin: 0px 0px 1em; letter-spacing: 0.01em;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.01em;">The comments reflected an obvious attempt by the Iranian environmentalists to distance themselves from a Kaplan-funded organization like Panthera. Sources close to the Persian Wildlife Heritage Foundation, who asked for anonymity to discuss the matter, as well as former employees with the big-cat charity, say that&nbsp;Panthera never responded to their letter. (In a statement released after publication of this story, Panthera said,&nbsp;“Dr. Hunter did not pass the letter from PWHF to other members of Panthera’s senior leadership until February 12, 2018″ — after word of the environmentalists arrest had circulated in the media. “It was then that Dr. Hunter sent the aforementioned document to the current leadership group.”)</span>While the Iranian government bears ultimate responsibility for its actions against the environmentalists, the story of their arrest, detention, and prosecution suggests&nbsp;that political speech made on the other side of the world can have a potentially dangerous ripple effect.</font></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; line-height: 1.5; margin: 0px 0px 1em; letter-spacing: 0.01em;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">“People do not understand the impact that their reckless words can have on the lives of people on the other side of the world,” said Ramin Seyed-Emami, whose father, Kavous Seyed-Emami,&nbsp;died behind bars shortly after being taken into Iranian custody in the case. “They can do serious harm to people living in very delicate circumstances in Iran.”</font></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; line-height: 1.5; margin: 0px 0px 1em; letter-spacing: 0.01em;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><span style="box-sizing: border-box; font-weight: bold; letter-spacing: 0.1em; box-shadow: white 0px 1px 0px, rgb(17, 17, 17) 0px 4px 0px; text-transform: uppercase;">AN ORGANIZATION FOUNDED</span>&nbsp;by Kaplan, Panthera supports projects around the world to protect threatened wild cat species. One of Panthera’s many local NGO partners is based in Iran, the small Persian Wildlife Heritage Foundation. Panthera had been providing technical support and advice to the foundation for its work on endangered cheetahs. The environmentalists were said to be in constant touch with Iran’s government about the outside help they were receiving.</font></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; line-height: 1.5; margin: 0px 0px 1em; letter-spacing: 0.01em;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Shortly after the UANI conference, however, officials with Persian Wildlife Heritage Foundation sent Panthera an urgent letter, first&nbsp;<a href="https://www.nationalgeographic.com/animals/2019/03/iran-wildlife-conservationists-jailed/" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; text-decoration-line: none;">reported</a>&nbsp;by <b>National Geographic</b> and obtained by The Intercept. The letter, sent a few weeks after Kaplan’s speech, expressed obvious concern about Kaplan. “A recent speech and various statements by your Founder and Chairman, Mr. Tom Kaplan and a recent article reiterating same, together with his association with the advocacy group, United Against Nuclear Iran has caused us much alarm and consternation,” said the letter from Persian Wildlife Heritage Foundation Board Chair Mahindokht Dehdashtian to Panthera President Luke Hunter. (Hunter is no longer with Panthera and directed The Intercept’s press inquiry to the group.)</font></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; line-height: 1.5; margin: 0px 0px 1em; letter-spacing: 0.01em;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">“His allegations about our country are absolutely baseless and his statements are insulting to our country and its people,” the letter continued. “We are very sorry to see personal politics have a negative impact on conservation, but these are unusual times.”</font></p></div><div data-reactid="228" style="box-sizing: border-box;"><p style="box-sizing: border-box; line-height: 1.5; margin: 0px 0px 1em; letter-spacing: 0.01em;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b>The environmentalists’ efforts, though, came tragically late. A few months after the UANI conference, in January 2018, Iranian authorities arrested Morad Tahbaz, the founder of the Persian Wildlife Heritage Foundation, along with eight other conservationists.</b></font></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; line-height: 1.5; margin: 0px 0px 1em; letter-spacing: 0.01em;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">The Iranian prisoners have become a cause célèbre among environmentalists, Iranian reformers, and opponents of the regime alike. Their story is one of the politicization of environmental issues — where, for instance, poor environmental management is weaponized by foreign adversaries for propaganda purposes. Yet it is also the story of a billionaire at the center of a burgeoning geopolitical storm. Kaplan’s money has traveled around the world and back, and his political and environmental activism appear to have finally collided.</font></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; line-height: 1.5; margin: 0px 0px 1em; letter-spacing: 0.01em;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">“While I do not know what has exactly happened to the PWHF environmentalists in prison, I suspect they have repeatedly faced one troubling question during interrogations: ‘why does an American Jewish billionaire, who funds an anti-Iran organization care so much about conserving cheetahs in Iran?'” Kaveh Madani, a former deputy head of Iran’s Department of Environment and now a fellow at Yale, wrote in a&nbsp;<a href="https://medium.com/@kavehmadani/why-is-iran-so-paranoid-about-environmentalism-ace0c9617478" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; text-decoration-line: none;">Medium post</a>. “Playing reckless political and security games with the environment jeopardizes the sincere and legitimate actions, and even lives of innocent environmentalists.”</font></p></div><div data-reactid="231" style="box-sizing: border-box;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b>The results have been catastrophic for the imprisoned environmentalists. </b>Seyed-Emami, who held dual citizenship in Iran and Canada, died at age 63 in custody at Tehran’s notorious Evin Prison a month into his detention. The government claims&nbsp;the death was a suicide. Shortly after his death, Seyed-Emami’s son Ramin posted a statement to Instagram. “The news of my father’s passing is impossible to fathom,” he wrote. “They say he committed suicide. I still can’t believe this.” Others among the group of detained environmentalists have said they faced mistreatment behind bars.</font><p style="box-sizing: border-box; line-height: 1.5; margin: 0px 0px 1em; letter-spacing: 0.01em;" /><p style="box-sizing: border-box; line-height: 1.5; margin: 0px 0px 1em; letter-spacing: 0.01em;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">News of the government’s case has only trickled out from Iranian state media, which reported on allegations that the environmentalists had been helping monitor Iran’s covert military sites. Numerous reports on government-affiliated news websites have tried to<a href="https://www.farsnews.com/news/13970924000002/%D8%A7%D8%AA%D8%AD%D8%A7%D8%AF-%D9%85%D9%88%D8%B3%D8%B3%D8%A7%D8%AA-%D9%85%D8%AD%DB%8C%D8%B7-%D8%B2%DB%8C%D8%B3%D8%AA%DB%8C-%D8%A8%D8%A7-%D8%A7%D8%B3%D8%B1%D8%A7%D8%A6%DB%8C%D9%84-%D8%A8%D8%B1%D8%A7%DB%25" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; text-decoration-line: none;">&nbsp;tie the environmentalists to espionage</a>&nbsp;and&nbsp;<a href="https://www.mashreghnews.ir/news/872929/%D8%B1%D8%A7%D8%A8%D8%B7%D9%87-%DB%8C-%D8%AC%D8%A7%D8%B3%D9%88%D8%B3%D8%A7%D9%86-%D9%85%D8%AD%DB%8C%D8%B7-%D8%B2%DB%8C%D8%B3%D8%AA-%D8%A8%D8%A7-%D8%AA%D8%AD%D8%B1%DB%8C%D9%85-%D9%87%D8%A7%DB%8C-%D8%B6%D8%AF%25" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; text-decoration-line: none;">speculated about their relationship</a>&nbsp;with Kaplan himself. The government claimed that camera traps set up by the Persian Wildlife members to monitor cheetahs had been used as part of a plot to gather intelligence on secretive missile launch sites in the country.</font></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; line-height: 1.5; margin: 0px 0px 1em; letter-spacing: 0.01em;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">Cole Burton, a conservationist at Canada’s University of British Columbia,&nbsp;<a href="https://www.pri.org/stories/2019-08-29/they-wanted-save-endangered-cheetahs-iran-their-work-landed-them-jail" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; text-decoration-line: none;">told PRI this August</a>&nbsp;that it is unlikely&nbsp;such low-resolution, motion-triggered cameras, designed to capture the movements of passing animals, would be a useful tool for gathering such information.</font></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; line-height: 1.5; margin: 0px 0px 1em; letter-spacing: 0.01em;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Following their arrests, five of the environmentalists were charged with national security offenses by Iran’s judiciary — crimes that could carry a possible death penalty. Their trial&nbsp;was&nbsp;marred by accusations of torture and failures of due process. At a&nbsp;<a href="https://www.hrw.org/news/2019/02/05/iran-environmentalists-flawed-trial" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; text-decoration-line: none;">hearing</a>&nbsp;this February, Niloufar Bayani, one of the detained, rejected the espionage accusations and described torture she claims to have suffered in custody. Bayani reportedly told the court, “If you were being threatened with a needle of hallucinogenic drugs [hovering] above your arm, you would also confess to whatever they wanted you to confess.”</font></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; line-height: 1.5; margin: 0px 0px 1em; letter-spacing: 0.01em;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><span style="box-sizing: border-box; font-weight: bold; letter-spacing: 0.1em; box-shadow: white 0px 1px 0px, rgb(17, 17, 17) 0px 4px 0px; text-transform: uppercase;">LIKE MANY WEALTHY</span>&nbsp;people with a taste for philanthropy, Kaplan’s money is spread around an assortment of charities. According to its website, Panthera supports projects around the world protecting wild cat species from Latin America to China. There is no evidence that Kaplan’s interest in conservationism ever crossed over with his hard-line geopolitics, or that Panthera’s activities have been influenced by its funder’s political leanings. But to the paranoid, authoritarian security services of a government like Iran’s, any connection between a local conservation NGO and an organization like Panthera can easily look like a conspiracy in the making.</font></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; line-height: 1.5; margin: 0px 0px 1em; letter-spacing: 0.01em;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);"><b>The Iranian government has grounds to view Kaplan as a powerful enemy.</b> UANI’s work goes well beyond advocacy against Iran in Washington. The group’s board includes a number of former top officials from intelligence and national security agencies in the U.S. and Israel. And UANI appears to have a working relationship with the American national security state: In 2015, a federal judge&nbsp;<a href="https://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-secrets-iran-idUSKBN0MJ24H20150323" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; text-decoration-line: none;">threw out a civil lawsuit</a>&nbsp;against the group when the U.S. government intervened to assert state secrets — a highly unusual step in a civil suit between private parties.</font></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; line-height: 1.5; margin: 0px 0px 1em; letter-spacing: 0.01em;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style=""><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">Kaplan also rubs elbows with a laundry list of Iran’s geopolitical foes, particularly officials from the Persian Gulf monarchies. In an article published by a </span><b style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">United Arab Emirates</b><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">-owned media outlet this February, Kaplan&nbsp;</span><a href="https://www.thenational.ae/arts-culture/art/billionaire-art-collector-thomas-kaplan-on-working-with-sheikh-mohamed-and-why-he-loves-the-uae-1.826947" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102); box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; text-decoration-line: none;">described</a><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">&nbsp;the Emirates and its leaders as “closest partners in more facets of my life than anyone else other than my wife.” </span><b style="background-color: rgb(255, 204, 102);">The New York Times recently&nbsp;<a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2019/06/02/world/middleeast/crown-prince-mohammed-bin-zayed.html" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; text-decoration-line: none;">noted</a>&nbsp;that Kaplan — along with former British Prime Minister Tony Blair and French President Nicholas Sarkozy — was a guest of UAE Crown Prince Mohammed bin Zayed, </b><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">who reportedly funds Panthera, at his annual salon in Abu Dhabi last December.</span></font></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; line-height: 1.5; margin: 0px 0px 1em; letter-spacing: 0.01em;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">Panthera itself also has ties to individuals connected with the national security apparatuses of Israel and the United States. The “Conservation Council”&nbsp;<a href="https://www.panthera.org/conservation-council" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; text-decoration-line: none;">listed</a>&nbsp;on Panthera’s website includes <b>David Petraeus, as well as a former official from Israel’s internal secret service, the Shin Bet</b>. Individuals associated with UANI sit on the council, though these affiliations are not listed on the site. Top government officials from the UAE are also listed, including the UAE’s ambassador to the United States, Yousef al-Otaiba, and U.N. Ambassador Lana Nusseibeh. In June, Kaplan signed an agreement tying <b>Panthera to an Arabian leopard conservation initiative founded by Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman,</b> according to the online news portal Intelligence Online.</font><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 204, 102);"> In 2018, several months after Washington Post columnist Jamal Khashoggi was&nbsp;<a href="https://theintercept.com/2019/06/20/jamal-khashoggi-saudi-arabia-un-report/" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; text-decoration-line: none;">murdered</a>&nbsp;by Saudi operatives close to bin Salman, Kaplan was&nbsp;<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5IBa88VkM6g&feature=youtu.be&t=173" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; text-decoration-line: none;">spotted</a>&nbsp;in the crown prince’s royal box at an automobile race outside Riyadh.</font></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; line-height: 1.5; margin: 0px 0px 1em; letter-spacing: 0.01em;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Panthera and Kaplan&nbsp;did not respond to requests for comment&nbsp;about this article. They have never made any public comments about the arrest of their local partners in Iran. UANI did not respond to a request for comment and neither did the Iranian consulate in New York. (In a statement made after this story’s release, Panthera said, “We considered making an official statement in support of the imprisoned conservationists, as well as to clarify our very limited relationship, but we were asked by these authorities not to comment on the case. It is for this reason – and this reason only – that Panthera has remained silent on this subject and not answered any questions from the media.”)</font></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; line-height: 1.5; margin: 0px 0px 1em; letter-spacing: 0.01em;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Kaplan’s anti-Iran advocacy, meanwhile, has continued apace. At UANI’s September 2018 conference, while the Iranian conservationists languished in jail, Kaplan showed up again. His appearance, dubbed into Farsi by Voice of America’s Persian language service, seemed calculated to provoke. In front of the cameras, Kaplan was presented with a framed Iranian rial, in recognition of his efforts to help devalue Iran’s currency.</font></p></div><div class="img-wrap align-center width-fixed" data-reactid="232" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 2em 0px 2.25em; line-height: 1; max-width: none; width: 540px;"><div data-reactid="233" style="box-sizing: border-box;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" /><p class="caption" style="box-sizing: border-box; line-height: 1; margin: 0px; letter-spacing: 0.01em; word-spacing: -0.25em; display: inline;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">An “Any Hope for Nature” campaign poster showing detained environmental activists, from left to right, Taher Ghadirian, Niloufar Bayani, Amirhossein Khaleghi, Houman Jokar, Sam Rajabi, Sepideh Kashani, Morad Tahbaz and Abdolreza Kouhpayeh.</font></font></font></font>

Image: Courtesy Mehran Seyed Emami]</p></div></div><div data-reactid="234" style="box-sizing: border-box;"><p style="box-sizing: border-box; line-height: 1.5; margin: 0px 0px 1em; letter-spacing: 0.01em;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><span style="box-sizing: border-box; font-weight: bold; letter-spacing: 0.1em; box-shadow: white 0px 1px 0px, rgb(17, 17, 17) 0px 4px 0px; text-transform: uppercase;">THE ENVIRONMENTALISTS’ CASE</span>&nbsp;has become a cause for concern among their colleagues around the world. But the case has also generated anger over the dangerous politicization of environmental issues in Iran and elsewhere. At least one former employee of Panthera, who had contact with the Iranian environmentalists, believes that Kaplan’s decision to mix politics with his environmental interests recklessly endangered Panthera’s local Iranian partners.</font></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; line-height: 1.5; margin: 0px 0px 1em; letter-spacing: 0.01em;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.01em;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">“As conservationists, we are focused on our subjects. Regardless of the nature of local governments, we try and work with them to find compromises to get them to enact policies help protect endangered species and the environment,” Tanya Rosen, who worked at Panthera for six years, told The Intercept. “Until recently, nobody really paid attention to the implications of having certain donors.”</font></span></p></div><div data-reactid="238" style="box-sizing: border-box;"><p style="box-sizing: border-box; line-height: 1.5; margin: 0px 0px 1em; letter-spacing: 0.01em;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">During her time at Panthera, Rosen, who headed the organization’s snow leopard program in Central Asia, had contact with the Iranian environmentalists now languishing in prison. She described them as apolitical and passionately immersed in their conservation efforts. Before their arrest, Rosen had been working with the Persian Wildlife Heritage Foundation to set up a summit focused on protecting Iranian cheetahs.</font></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; line-height: 1.5; margin: 0px 0px 1em; letter-spacing: 0.01em;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">“With the wisdom of what we know now, looking back at the board of Panthera, you start wondering, ‘Why didn’t you see it?’” Rosen said. “It’s important to realize that nobody in Panthera, not even senior staff, knew about Kaplan’s involvement with UANI. He never talked about it, he never made any disclosure about it.”</font></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; line-height: 1.5; margin: 0px 0px 1em; letter-spacing: 0.01em;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b>The politicization of environmental issues — especially on Iran — has been a project not just of private donors but state actors as well.</b> In recent years, U.S. and Israeli government officials have been increasingly vocal about Iran’s environmental problems, including air pollution and chronic water scarcity. Last year, Israeli Prime <span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">Minister Benjamin Netanyahu released a video addressed to Iranians impacted by drought. His video also introduced a website designed to offer them tips drawn from Israeli water management practices. U.S. Secretary of State&nbsp;<a href="https://www.state.gov/secretary/remarks/2018/10/286751.htm" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; text-decoration-line: none;">Mike Pompeo</a>&nbsp;and former national security adviser&nbsp;<a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/john-bolton-the-iran-deal-was-betrayed-by-its-own-abysmal-record/2018/05/09/c8f6bc9a-53bf-11e8-9c91-7dab596e8252_story.html?noredirect=on&utm_term=.c022c03c7d7f" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; text-decoration-line: none;">John Bolton</a>&nbsp;— both vocal enemies of the Iranian government — have also made a point of highlighting Iran’s environmental crises in their public remarks</span>.</font></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; line-height: 1.5; margin: 0px 0px 1em; letter-spacing: 0.01em;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Earlier this year, UANI released an extensive report about Iran’s environment, drawing further political connections to the issue.</font></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; line-height: 1.5; margin: 0px 0px 1em; letter-spacing: 0.01em;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Expressions of concern about Iran’s environment, coming from individuals and groups otherwise better known for threatening war with that country, puts local Iranian conservationists in a difficult position. By politicizing environmental issues, Iran’s adversaries have made the environment an area of interest for Iran’s opaque and frightening national security state, an environmentalist targeted by the regime in connection with the Panthera case, who asked for anonymity for security reasons, told The Intercept. Environmental NGOs in Iran, particularly those with foreign ties, now face a heightened danger from security services that are emboldened to view their field as a potential avenue for foreign espionage.</font></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; line-height: 1.5; margin: 0px 0px 1em; letter-spacing: 0.01em;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">For Rosen, her experience with Panthera and its abandonment of the Persian Wildlife Heritage Foundation activists has left a bitter taste. After the arrests, she left Panthera, explaining that she “could no longer work for an organization that doesn’t care about the safety of their staff or their partners.” (In its statement released after publication of this story, Panthera said, “Contrary to her statements, Ms. Rosen did not cite the imprisoned conservationists, Panthera’s relationship with PWHF or Dr. Kaplan’s remarks about Iran, as a reason for her resignation in her letter dated August 14, 2018, or in other related internal communications. She instead referred to her disappointment at not being offered a leadership position during Panthera’s organizational restructuring process of mid-2018, as well as at Dr. Hunter’s imminent departure.”)</font></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; line-height: 1.5; margin: 0px 0px 1em; letter-spacing: 0.01em;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Meanwhile, lingering questions remain about how the reckless behavior of Panthera’s founder may have contributed to the calamity that befell the Iranian conservationists.</font></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; line-height: 1.5; margin: 0px 0px 1em; letter-spacing: 0.01em;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">“This is not just about someone who dislikes a country,” said Rosen. “It’s about someone who is actively funding efforts to affect that country’s politics, while supporting local environmentalists who had no knowledge of his politics.”</font></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; line-height: 1.5; margin: 0px 0px 1em; letter-spacing: 0.01em;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><strong style="box-sizing: border-box;">Update: December 11, 2019</strong><br style="box-sizing: border-box;" /><span style="box-sizing: border-box;">This story has been updated to include material from a statement made by Panthera after publication. The group said that it had not commented on the Iranian environmentalists’ ordeal because U.S. authorities had asked it not to. The group also said&nbsp;that after receiving the Persian Wildlife Heritage Foundation’s letter dated October 17, 2017, then-Panthera President Luke Hunter did not&nbsp;notify the rest of Panthera’s leadership until&nbsp;after the&nbsp;Iranian conservationists&nbsp;had been arrested early the next year. The Panthera statement also said that Tanya Rosen, the former Panthera employee, did not cite the case of the environmentalists in her resignation letter to the company.</span></font></p></div><div><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">=
</font><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">pow</font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">
</font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><a href="https://theintercept.com/2020/03/05/iran-coronavirus-medicine-sanctions/" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; outline: none;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" color="#000000">https://theintercept.com/2020/03/05/iran-coronavirus-medicine-sanctions/</font></a></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">D<span style="box-sizing: border-box; font-weight: bold; letter-spacing: 0.1em; box-shadow: white 0px 1px 0px, rgb(17, 17, 17) 0px 4px 0px; text-transform: uppercase;">ESPITE A MASSIVE</span><span style="letter-spacing: 0.01em;">&nbsp;</span><span style="letter-spacing: 0.01em;">coronavirus-related public health crisis, an anti-Iran pressure group with close ties to the Trump administration is urging major pharmaceutical companies to “end their Iran business,” focusing on companies with special licenses — most often under a broadly defined “</span><a href="https://archive.nytimes.com/www.nytimes.com/interactive/2010/12/24/world/24-sanctions.html?r=0" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; outline: none; letter-spacing: 0.01em; box-sizing: border-box;">humanitarian exemption</a><span style="letter-spacing: 0.01em;">” — to conduct trade with Iran.</span></font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.01em; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">
</span></font></div><div data-reactid="233" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); box-sizing: border-box;"><p style="margin: 0px 0px 1em; box-sizing: border-box; line-height: 1.5; letter-spacing: 0.01em;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">With a novel strain of coronavirus rapidly spreading around the world, Iran has been hit particularly hard, with 107 deaths and 3,515 infections recorded so far. Yet the pressure group,</font><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 204, 102);">&nbsp;<a href="https://militarist-monitor.org/profile/united_against_nuclear_iran/" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; outline: none; box-sizing: border-box;">United Against Nuclear Iran</a>, is carrying on with its campaign targeting medical trade with Iran despite the Trump administration’s<a href="https://apnews.com/418a4cae08d77139bfcd614ecd6faffa" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; outline: none; box-sizing: border-box;">&nbsp;special financial channels</a>&nbsp;for humanitarian goods and medicine to reach the beleaguered country.</font></p><p style="margin: 0px 0px 1em; box-sizing: border-box; line-height: 1.5; letter-spacing: 0.01em;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">“U.S. sanctions have had a long-term impact on Iran’s ability to freely import medical supplies,” said Tyler Cullis, an attorney specializing in sanctions law at Ferrari & Associates. He pointed to “outside groups” that seek to bolster the Treasury Department’s investigatory heft and provide information on companies doing trade with Iran. “In tandem with U.S. sanctions,” Cullis said, “these groups have sought to impose reputational costs on companies that engage in lawful and legitimate trade with Iran, including humanitarian trade.”</font></p></div><blockquote class="Pullquote Pullquote--right" data-reactid="234" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); box-sizing: border-box; font-weight: bold; margin: 2em -170px 2em 0px; padding: 0px 0px 0px 2em; box-shadow: none; line-height: 1.125; float: right; max-width: 75%;"><span class="Pullquote-line" data-reactid="235" style="box-sizing: border-box; display: block; position: relative; bottom: -4px; width: 2em; height: 0.7em; margin-right: 0.3em; float: left; background-color: rgb(17, 17, 17);"><div data-reactid="236" style="box-sizing: border-box;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">“These groups have sought to impose reputational costs on companies that engage in lawful and legitimate trade with Iran, including humanitarian trade.”</font></div></span></blockquote><div data-reactid="237" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); box-sizing: border-box;"><p style="margin: 0px 0px 1em; box-sizing: border-box; line-height: 1.5; letter-spacing: 0.01em;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">The medical and humanitarian trade are carved out of crippling sanctions against Iran through special licenses issued by the Treasury Department. But companies must apply for the licenses then carry out the trade — something United Against Nuclear Iran, known as UANI, seeks to discourage.</font></p><p style="margin: 0px 0px 1em; box-sizing: border-box; line-height: 1.5; letter-spacing: 0.01em;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">“Their efforts are not insignificant,” Cullis said. “It is, after all, not an altogether lucrative enterprise selling medical supplies to Iran, so the name-and-shame operations of outside groups have a significant impact on the cost-benefit analysis associated with doing business with Iran.”</font></p><p style="margin: 0px 0px 1em; box-sizing: border-box; line-height: 1.5; letter-spacing: 0.01em;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b>Joshua Silberberg, a spokesperson for UANI</b>, declined to respond to questions about the group’s effort to name and shame companies doing medical trade with Iran. “UANI has a long history of expressing support and solidarity with the Iranian people,” he said, pointing to a&nbsp;<a href="https://www.unitedagainstnucleariran.com/press-releases/uani-applauds-finalization-of-swiss-humanitarian-trade-arrangement-as-coronavirus" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; outline: none; box-sizing: border-box;">statement</a>&nbsp;applauding the finalization of the Swiss Humanitarian Trade Arrangement, an agreement arranged by the U.S. and Swiss governments.</font></p><p style="margin: 0px 0px 1em; box-sizing: border-box; line-height: 1.5; letter-spacing: 0.01em;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">UANI says it aims to persuade “the regime in Tehran to desist from its quest for nuclear weapons, while striving not to punish the Iranian people.” (The U.S. intelligence community&nbsp;<a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/white-house-differs-with-intelligence-community-on-iran-nuclear-deal-2019-2" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; outline: none; box-sizing: border-box;">does not believe</a>&nbsp;that Iran has any desire or plans to build nuclear weapons.)&nbsp;<b>UANI’s efforts, however, have extended beyond sanctions into pressuring companies that do legal trade with Iran, often under the Treasury Department’s humanitarian exemptions to sanctions — including medical-related trades that would presumably aid in combating a massive public health crisis like this&nbsp; coronavirus outbreak.</b></font></p><p style="margin: 0px 0px 1em; box-sizing: border-box; line-height: 1.5; letter-spacing: 0.01em;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">UANI operates an “<a href="https://www.unitedagainstnucleariran.com/ibr" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; outline: none; box-sizing: border-box;">Iran Business Registry</a>” that provides an online database of companies it believes are conducting business in or with Iran — a name-and-shame strategy to increase Iran’s economic isolation. The pressure campaign has targeted multiple medical companies with Treasury Department licenses to conduct trade with Iran. Nine pharmaceutical, biotechnology, and medical-device corporations, all with special licenses, are listed on UANI’s business registry.<span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">&nbsp;Companies urged by UANI to “end their Iran business” include&nbsp;<a href="https://www.unitedagainstnucleariran.com/company/bayer-ag" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; outline: none; box-sizing: border-box;">Bayer</a>,&nbsp;<a href="https://www.unitedagainstnucleariran.com/company/merck-kgaa" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; outline: none; box-sizing: border-box;">Merck</a>,&nbsp;<a href="https://www.unitedagainstnucleariran.com/company/pfizer-inc" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; outline: none; box-sizing: border-box;">Pfizer</a>,&nbsp;<a href="https://www.unitedagainstnucleariran.com/company/genzyme" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; outline: none; box-sizing: border-box;">Genzyme</a>,&nbsp;<a href="https://www.unitedagainstnucleariran.com/company/airsep-corporation" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; outline: none; box-sizing: border-box;">AirSep</a>,&nbsp;<a href="https://www.unitedagainstnucleariran.com/company/medrad-incorporated" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; outline: none; box-sizing: border-box;">Medrad</a>,&nbsp;<a href="https://www.unitedagainstnucleariran.com/company/becton-dickinson-company" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; outline: none; box-sizing: border-box;">Becton, Dickinson & Company</a>,&nbsp;<a href="https://www.unitedagainstnucleariran.com/company/eli-lilly-and-company" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; outline: none; box-sizing: border-box;">Eli Lilly</a>, and&nbsp;<a href="https://www.unitedagainstnucleariran.com/company/abbott-laboratories" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; outline: none; box-sizing: border-box;">Abbott Laboratories</a>.</span></font></p><p style="margin: 0px 0px 1em; box-sizing: border-box; line-height: 1.5; letter-spacing: 0.01em;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 204, 102);">The legal channels for humanitarian trade are&nbsp;<a href="https://www.atlanticcouncil.org/blogs/iransource/how-us-sanctions-hinder-iranians-access-to-medicine/" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; outline: none; box-sizing: border-box;">widely</a>&nbsp;<a href="https://foreignpolicy.com/2019/08/14/u-s-sanctions-are-killing-cancer-patients-in-iran/" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; outline: none; box-sizing: border-box;">reported</a>&nbsp;to be failing to provide a sufficient flow of medicine and other humanitarian goods.</font></p><p style="margin: 0px 0px 1em; box-sizing: border-box; line-height: 1.5; letter-spacing: 0.01em;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);"><span style="box-sizing: border-box; font-weight: bold; letter-spacing: 0.1em; box-shadow: white 0px 1px 0px, rgb(17, 17, 17) 0px 4px 0px; text-transform: uppercase;">UANI’S EFFORTS ARE</span>&nbsp;particularly notable in light of the group’s close ties to the Trump administration; Iran’s regional adversaries Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, and Israel; and the Republican Party’s biggest donors, Sheldon and Miriam Adelson.</font></p><p style="margin: 0px 0px 1em; box-sizing: border-box; line-height: 1.5; letter-spacing: 0.01em;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 153, 0);">Senior UANI adviser&nbsp;<a href="https://militarist-monitor.org/profile/john-bolton/" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; outline: none; box-sizing: border-box;">John Bolton</a>&nbsp;worked for UANI both before and after his stint in the Trump administration as national security adviser. UANI’s umbrella group, Counter Extremism Project United Inc,&nbsp;<a href="https://lobelog.com/emails-suggest-uae-and-saudi-arabia-funded-u-s-based-anti-iran-pressure-group/" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; outline: none; box-sizing: border-box;">paid Bolton $240,000</a>&nbsp;between 2016 and 2017.<b>&nbsp;Bolton’s appointment as national security adviser was&nbsp;<a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2018/05/08/world/middleeast/trump-iran-nuclear-deal.html" style="text-decoration-line: none; outline: none; box-sizing: border-box;">quickly followed</a>&nbsp;by Trump’s withdrawal from the nuclear deal with Iran.</b></font></p></div><div data-reactid="248" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); box-sizing: border-box;"><p style="margin: 0px 0px 1em; box-sizing: border-box; line-height: 1.5; letter-spacing: 0.01em;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">Besides Bolton, the Trump administration twice sent Secretary of State Mike Pompeo to UANI’s annual conference, held during the United Nations General Assembly. Pompeo used the occasions to&nbsp;<a href="https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/policy/defense-national-security/pompeo-european-allies-are-financing-iranian-terrorism" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; outline: none; box-sizing: border-box;">promote outlandish claims</a>&nbsp;about Europe purportedly financing Iranian terrorism and to present the administration’s “maximum pressure” strategy to UANI’s audience, which included senior diplomats and intelligence officials from the Persian Gulf and Israel.</font></p><p style="margin: 0px 0px 1em; box-sizing: border-box; line-height: 1.5; letter-spacing: 0.01em;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">The group’s last summit, held in September, featured<b>&nbsp;U.S. Ambassador to Germany Richard Grenell, who is now Trump’s acting director of national intelligence, as well as a who’s who of the Trump administration’s hawkish Middle East partners, including top diplomats from Persian Gulf monarchies and Israel. (UANI and its affiliated organizations have a number of links to Gulf monarchies, including a 2014 email from a UANI advisory board member soliciting “<a href="https://lobelog.com/emails-suggest-uae-and-saudi-arabia-funded-u-s-based-anti-iran-pressure-group/" style="text-decoration-line: none; outline: none; box-sizing: border-box;">support</a>” from the United Arab Emirates.)</b></font></p><p style="margin: 0px 0px 1em; box-sizing: border-box; line-height: 1.5; letter-spacing: 0.01em;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">UANI’s&nbsp;<a href="https://lobelog.com/document-reveals-billionaire-backers-behind-united-against-nuclear-iran/" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; outline: none; box-sizing: border-box;">top funder</a>, billionaire&nbsp;<a href="https://theintercept.com/2019/11/27/iran-environmentalists-panthera-thomas-kaplan/" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; outline: none; box-sizing: border-box;">Thomas Kaplan</a>&nbsp;— an investor whose companies have looked to profit from “<a href="https://www.salon.com/2014/08/11/billionaires_sketchy_middle_east_gamble_meet_the_man_betting_on_war_with_iran/" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; outline: none; box-sizing: border-box;">political unrest</a>” in the Middle East — was also in attendance at the summit.</font></p><p style="margin: 0px 0px 1em; box-sizing: border-box; line-height: 1.5; letter-spacing: 0.01em;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b>Finally, Sheldon and Miriam Adelson’s&nbsp;<a href="https://www.thenation.com/article/archive/gop-megadonor-sheldon-adelson-funds-mysterious-anti-iran-pressure-group/" style="text-decoration-line: none; outline: none; box-sizing: border-box;">financial support</a>&nbsp;for UANI closely tracks the Republican megadonors’ hawkish views toward Iran.&nbsp;</b>In 2013,&nbsp;<a href="https://militarist-monitor.org/profile/sheldon-adelson/" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; outline: none; box-sizing: border-box;">Sheldon Adelson</a>&nbsp;told an audience at Yeshiva University that Obama&nbsp;<a href="https://mondoweiss.net/2013/10/adelson-nuclear-negotiate/" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; outline: none; box-sizing: border-box;">should launch</a>&nbsp;a nuclear strike on Iran and threaten that Iran will be “wiped out” if it doesn’t dismantle its nuclear program. The Adelsons were Trump’s biggest funders in the 2016 election and the GOP’s biggest funders in the 2018 cycle. They are&nbsp;<a href="https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2020/feb/10/sheldon-adelson-trump-donation-republicans-congress" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; outline: none; box-sizing: border-box;">expected</a>&nbsp;to contribute at least $100 million to Trump’s reelection efforts and Republican congressional candidates in the 2020 cycle.</font></p><p style="margin: 0px 0px 1em; box-sizing: border-box; line-height: 1.5; letter-spacing: 0.01em;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">While the Trump administration’s extreme financial pressure against Iran is coinciding with the coronavirus outbreak, Tyler Cullis, the sanctions lawyer, was careful to note that issues with ensuring a robust trade of medical and humanitarian supplies to Iran began under previous administrations. “While those problems have been exacerbated under the Trump administration,” Cullis said, “their origination takes place more than a decade ago when prior administrations first started imposing enormous sanctions pressure on Iran’s financial sector.”</font></p></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"></font></div><div style=""><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">=</font><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">belated nuclear weapons bak?</font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">=</font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">pow</font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 1rem; box-sizing: border-box; word-break: break-word;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b>Bolton was widely seen as the driving force behind Trump’s decision to pull the United States out of the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces (INF) Treaty.&nbsp;</b>This treaty—signed by President Ronald Reagan and Soviet Union Premier Mikhail Gorbachev—eliminated US and Russian land-based short- and medium-range missiles, both nuclear and conventional. It was a key staple of the non-proliferation regime.<a href="https://militarist-monitor.org/profile/john-bolton/#ftn34" name="ftnref" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; outline: none; box-sizing: border-box; background-color: transparent; touch-action: manipulation; transition: background 0.15s cubic-bezier(0.33, 0.66, 0.66, 1) 0s; box-shadow: rgb(169, 15, 11) 0px -2px 0px inset; word-break: break-word; overflow-wrap: break-word; padding-bottom: 0px;">[34]</a></font></p><p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 1rem; box-sizing: border-box; word-break: break-word;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Commenting on the decision to pull out of the INF and Bolton’s role in it,<b>&nbsp;Joe Cirincione, president of the Ploughshares Fund</b>, wrote, “Just in time for Halloween, John Bolton emerges from the basement of the White House to continue his serial killing spree of arms control agreements. … Bolton is about to dismember [the INF]—for no good reason. He apparently has convinced an uninformed and uninterested president that a likely Russian violation of the INF Treaty is reason to destroy the agreement.”</font></p><p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 1rem; box-sizing: border-box; word-break: break-word;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">Cirincione noted that there was a legitimate basis for accusing Russia of violating the INF, but that this was not nearly enough reason to withdraw from a treaty that was, on the whole, still achieving its purpose. Instead, Cirincione contended, the decision to withdraw was based on a desire for new missiles called for in Trump’s Nuclear Posture Review, issued early in 2018.</font></p><p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 1rem; box-sizing: border-box; word-break: break-word;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b>Cirincione argued, “In order to field these new weapons, Bolton needs Trump to quit Reagan’s treaty</b>. But there is no need for these new instruments of mass destruction. Even if the Russians have violated the agreement, the United States already has thousands of long-range nuclear weapons trained on Russia. Additional weapons would be redundant, providing no new capability.”</font></p><p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 1rem; box-sizing: border-box; word-break: break-word;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">On Bolton’s role, Cirincione stated, “Bolton does not try to mask his identity or his right-wing ideologue. He does not issue his threats in raspy phone calls, but boldly proclaims that U.S. military power should not be constrained by any treaties, under any circumstances. Like a recycled horror movie, he presents nuclear war-fighting ideas from the 1950s as if they were bold new concepts</span>.”<a href="https://militarist-monitor.org/profile/john-bolton/#ftn35" name="ftnref" style="background-color: transparent; text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; outline: none; box-sizing: border-box; touch-action: manipulation; transition: background 0.15s cubic-bezier(0.33, 0.66, 0.66, 1) 0s; box-shadow: rgb(169, 15, 11) 0px -2px 0px inset; word-break: break-word; overflow-wrap: break-word; padding-bottom: 0px;">[35]</a></font></p><p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 1rem; box-sizing: border-box; word-break: break-word;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Europeans expressed concerns that Washington might deploy new missiles on the continent without the INF. But, Reuters noted, “Bolton said Washington was ‘a long way’ from making any such deployments in Europe and said grim warnings about the dangerous consequences of Washington quitting the treaty were wide of the mark and reminded him of similarly hollow warnings when the United States left the Cold War-era Anti-Ballistic Missile treaty in 2002.”<a href="https://militarist-monitor.org/profile/john-bolton/#ftn36" name="ftnref" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; outline: none; box-sizing: border-box; background-color: transparent; touch-action: manipulation; transition: background 0.15s cubic-bezier(0.33, 0.66, 0.66, 1) 0s; box-shadow: rgb(169, 15, 11) 0px -2px 0px inset; word-break: break-word; overflow-wrap: break-word; padding-bottom: 0px;">[36]</a></font></p><p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 1rem; box-sizing: border-box; word-break: break-word;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b>Bolton’s appointment ensured that Trump would stay the course in abandoning the Iran nuclear deal, and he did.</b>&nbsp;His support for military action against Iran is well known, and he has held that position for many years. In 2015, he penned an op-ed in the&nbsp;<em style="box-sizing: border-box;">New York Times</em>&nbsp;entitled, “To Stop Iran’s Bomb, Bomb Iran.” In it, he made clear that he envisioned not only a military attack, preferably by Israel, on Iran’s nuclear infrastructure, but also a U.S.-engineered regime change in Iran.</font></p><p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 1rem; box-sizing: border-box; word-break: break-word;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b>“The inconvenient truth is that only military action like Israel’s 1981 attack on Saddam Hussein’s Osirak reactor in Iraq or its 2007 destruction of a Syrian reactor, designed and built by North Korea, can accomplish what is required,” opined Bolton. “Time is terribly short, but a strike can still succeed.</b>&nbsp;… An attack need not destroy all of Iran’s nuclear infrastructure, but by breaking key links in the nuclear-fuel cycle, it could set back its program by three to five years. The United States could do a thorough job of destruction, but Israel alone can do what’s necessary. Such action should be combined with vigorous American support for Iran’s opposition, aimed at regime change in Tehran.”<a href="https://militarist-monitor.org/profile/john-bolton/#ftn37" name="ftnref" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; outline: none; box-sizing: border-box; background-color: transparent; touch-action: manipulation; transition: background 0.15s cubic-bezier(0.33, 0.66, 0.66, 1) 0s; box-shadow: rgb(169, 15, 11) 0px -2px 0px inset; word-break: break-word; overflow-wrap: break-word; padding-bottom: 0px;">[37]</a></font></p></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">...</font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 1rem; box-sizing: border-box; word-break: break-word;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Bolton’s penchant for intemperate statements often compromised his work as a diplomat. In July 2003, during the run-up to the six-party talks with North Korea, Bolton characterized North Korean President Kim Jong Il as the “tyrannical dictator” of a country where “life is a hellish nightmare.” North Korea responded in kind, saying that “such human scum and bloodsucker is not entitled to take part in the talks. … We have decided not to consider him as an official of the U.S. administration any longer nor to deal with him.” The State Department had to send a replacement for Bolton to the talks.<span style="font-weight: bold; outline: none; box-sizing: border-box; background-color: transparent; touch-action: manipulation; transition: background 0.15s cubic-bezier(0.33, 0.66, 0.66, 1) 0s; box-shadow: rgb(169, 15, 11) 0px -2px 0px inset; word-break: break-word; overflow-wrap: break-word; padding-bottom: 0px; position: relative; line-height: 0; vertical-align: baseline; top: -0.5em;"><a href="https://militarist-monitor.org/profile/john-bolton/#ftn101" name="ftnref" style="text-decoration-line: none; outline: none; box-sizing: border-box; background-color: transparent; touch-action: manipulation; transition: background 0.15s cubic-bezier(0.33, 0.66, 0.66, 1) 0s; box-shadow: rgb(169, 15, 11) 0px -2px 0px inset; word-break: break-word; overflow-wrap: break-word; padding-bottom: 0px;">[101]</a></span></font></p></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">=</font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><a href="https://lobelog.com/document-reveals-billionaire-backers-behind-united-against-nuclear-iran/"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" color="#000000">https://lobelog.com/document-reveals-billionaire-backers-behind-united-against-nuclear-iran/</font></a></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div style=""><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); margin: 0px 0px 10px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Eli Clifton</font></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); margin: 0px 0px 10px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Among the many groups engaged in advocacy over a potential deal between Iran and world powers,&nbsp;<a href="http://rightweb.irc-online.org/profile/united_against_nuclear_iran" style="outline: none; transition: all 0.14s ease 0s; text-decoration-line: none;">United Against Nuclear Iran (UANI)</a>&nbsp;stands apart as by far the most mysterious. Late last month, UANI&nbsp;<a href="http://www.unitedagainstnucleariran.com/press-releases/uani-national-advocacy-campaign-highlight-critical-issues-remaining-iran-nuclear-nego" style="outline: none; transition: all 0.14s ease 0s; text-decoration-line: none;">announced</a>&nbsp;it would launch a “multi-million dollar” ad campaign, noting “a growing concern that U.S. negotiators could be pressured into making dangerous concessions in order to cement a deal,” according to the group’s CEO, Mark Wallace.<span id="more-29966" /></font></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); margin: 0px 0px 10px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">As the ad buy suggests, UANI draws on a deep well of resources to fund fretful warnings about the dangers of compromising with Iran’s nuclear negotiators. But, despite piecemeal information unearthed in&nbsp;<a href="http://www.thenation.com/article/194969/gop-megadonor-sheldon-adelson-funds-mysterious-anti-iran-pressure-group" style="outline: none; transition: all 0.14s ease 0s; text-decoration-line: none;">my previous reporting</a>, a more comprehensive look at UANI’s funding has until now remained obscured by a US government-backed veil of secrecy: the group’s donor rolls were among the documents a plaintiff was seeking in a defamation case against UANI until the Justice Department quashed the suit with an&nbsp;<a href="http://www.motherjones.com/politics/2014/09/eric-holder-state-secrets-defamation-lawsuit-iran" style="outline: none; transition: all 0.14s ease 0s; text-decoration-line: none;">invocation of state secrets</a>.</font></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); margin: 0px 0px 10px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Now, however, I’ve obtained and reviewed a comprehensive list of UANI’s major donors in UANI’s 2013 tax year, providing some answers about who is backing the group’s efforts.</font></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); margin: 0px 0px 10px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">According to the “Schedule B” filing that tax-exempt nonprofits must submit to the IRS, the top donors to UANI are a pair of trusts associated with the&nbsp;<b>billionaire Thomas Kaplan and a family foundation operated by Republican mega-donor&nbsp;<a href="http://www.rightweb.irc-online.org/profile/Adelson_Sheldon" style="outline: none; transition: all 0.14s ease 0s; text-decoration-line: none;">Sheldon Adelson</a>&nbsp;and his wife Miriam.&nbsp;</b>Together, the funding associated with Kaplan and Adelson accounted for more than three-quarters of the group’s total revenue of $1.7 million for the 2013 tax year.</font></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); margin: 0px 0px 10px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">As I previously reported for&nbsp;<em>The Nation</em>, Adelson’s family foundation&nbsp;<a href="http://www.thenation.com/article/194969/gop-megadonor-sheldon-adelson-funds-mysterious-anti-iran-pressure-group" style="outline: none; transition: all 0.14s ease 0s; text-decoration-line: none;">contributed half a million dollars to UANI that year</a>.</font></p><p style="margin: 0px 0px 10px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style=""><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 204, 102);">Kaplan’s contributions to the anti-Iran group were larger overall—totaling $843,000, around half the UANI’s annual revenue for that tax year—but through two separate trusts managed by his company, named in the schedule B document as The Tigris Group. (Known Kaplan companies include The Tigris Financial Group, The Tigris Group of Companies, and The Electrum Group.) The first, Butterfield Trust, is described in a 2011 Sunshine Silver Mines&nbsp;<a href="http://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/1517006/000119312511183929/ds1.htm" style="outline: none; transition: all 0.14s ease 0s; text-decoration-line: none;">prospectus</a>&nbsp;as “trustee of a trust primarily for the benefit of members of the family of Dr. Thomas Kaplan.” Butterfield Trust contributed $281,000 to UANI in 2013. The other Kaplan trust, New Generations, gave UANI $562,000, according to the Schedule B</span><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">.</span></font></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); margin: 0px 0px 10px;"><strong><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Lawsuit Against UANI</font></strong></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); margin: 0px 0px 10px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">UANI, an outfit dedicated to promoting and strengthening sanctions and taking a hard line in the current Iran nuclear negotiations, made headlines earlier this year thanks to a bizarre lawsuit. Victor Restis sued UANI for defamation in July 2013 after the group&nbsp;<a href="http://www.unitedagainstnucleariran.com/press-releases/uani-calls-greek-ship-owner-victor-restis-and-restis-group-end-illicit-business-relat" style="outline: none; transition: all 0.14s ease 0s; text-decoration-line: none;">accused him</a>&nbsp;of doing illegal business with Iran, characterizing the Greek shipping magnate and an associate of being “front-men” for the Iranian government.</font></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); margin: 0px 0px 10px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">This past March, the Justice Department succeeded in getting the case dismissed. As part of discovery, the legal term for exchanging documents and information before trial. Restis’s lawyers had asked UANI to produce documents backing up its allegations in court, as well as some general information about the group, including its donor rolls. But the Justice Department shielded UANI from complying with the requests by invoking state secrets. An&nbsp;<a href="https://www.eff.org/files/2014/10/30/restis_amicus_brief.pdf" style="outline: none; transition: all 0.14s ease 0s; text-decoration-line: none;">amicus brief</a>&nbsp;filed by civil liberties groups said the intervention was unprecedented: “Never before has the government sought dismissal of a suit between private parties on state secrets grounds without providing the parties and the public any information about the government’s interest in the case.”</font></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); margin: 0px 0px 10px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">In the fall of 2014, as the case was heating up, UANI&nbsp;<a href="http://www.reuters.com/article/2014/09/13/ny-uani-idUSnBw135030a+100+BSW20140913" style="outline: none; transition: all 0.14s ease 0s; text-decoration-line: none;">released a statement</a>&nbsp;responding to queries raised by Restis’s legal team. The statement claimed that “UANI has never sought or received funds from any foreign individual” and that “UANI has never sought or received funds from any business about which UANI has expressed concerns regarding business with Iran.” The statement added that the group was “unaware of any donor to UANI who even knows Mr. Restis, much less that competes in any way with Mr. Restis’ businesses.” The denials, however, became nearly impossible to confirm when the Justice Department asked a judge to block the case, which could have led to the release of donor information.</font></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); margin: 0px 0px 10px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">“These kinds of financial ties were among what we specifically requested in discovery,” Restis’s attorney, Abbe Lowell, told LobeLog.</font></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); margin: 0px 0px 10px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">“The [new] information only confirms that there is a need to unravel the web of financial and political involvement between this organization and its supporters both in the United States and abroad,” said Lowell. “That is what we are seeking to do in this litigation to create transparency of the many interests involved.”</font></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); margin: 0px 0px 10px;"><strong><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Pattern of Giving</font></strong></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); margin: 0px 0px 10px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">Both Thomas Kaplan and Sheldon Adelson have family ties to Israel.&nbsp;Adelson&nbsp;<a href="http://www.buzzfeed.com/rosiegray/miriam-adelson" style="outline: none; transition: all 0.14s ease 0s; text-decoration-line: none;">gives in concert</a>&nbsp;with his Israeli-born wife, Miriam. “I am not Israeli,” Sheldon Adelson&nbsp;<a href="http://firstread.nbcnews.com/news/2012/01/27/10249298-gingrich-funder-isnt-trying-to-buy-the-presidency-aide-says" style="outline: none; transition: all 0.14s ease 0s; text-decoration-line: none;">said at a 2010 event</a>, speaking about the founding of&nbsp;<em>Israel Hayom</em>, a right-wing newspaper he owns in Israel. Standing beside Miriam, however, Adelson went on: “All we care about is being good Zionists, being good citizens of Israel, because even though I am not Israeli born, Israel is in my heart.”</font></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); margin: 0px 0px 10px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">The Kaplan trust New Generations is&nbsp;<a href="https://www.ftc.gov/enforcement/premerger-notification-program/early-termination-notices/20110468" style="outline: none; transition: all 0.14s ease 0s; text-decoration-line: none;">associated with Kaplan and his wife</a>, Dafna Recanati Kaplan, the daughter of influential Israeli investor Leon Recanati (Leon’s late uncle Raphael, an Israeli-American businessman, was himself a&nbsp;<a href="http://www.nytimes.com/1999/06/02/world/raphael-recanati-philanthropist-dies-at-75.html" style="outline: none; transition: all 0.14s ease 0s; text-decoration-line: none;">shipping magnate</a>).</font></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); margin: 0px 0px 10px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Both sets of major donors raise questions about UANI’s professed non-partisanship.</font></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); margin: 0px 0px 10px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">The Adelsons give almost exclusively to the Republican Party, Republican candidates, and right-wing dark money groups; Kaplan gives to both parties, but the sums to Republican affiliates and candidates, between the 2012 election cycle and the present, were higher, at a ratio of roughly 10 to 1. Before the 2012 election, Kaplan contributed $6,200 respectively to the Idaho, Massachusetts, Vermont, and Oklahoma Republican parties as well as $30,800 to the Republican National Committee. He also contributed $58,100 to the Romney Victory committee and $100,000 to the Romney-supporting Restore Our Future super PAC. The Adelsons, for their part, were reported to have&nbsp;<a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/12/03/sheldon-adelson-2012-election_n_2223589.html" style="outline: none; transition: all 0.14s ease 0s; text-decoration-line: none;">spent $150 million</a>&nbsp;to support Republican candidates in the 2012 election and contributed&nbsp;<a href="http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2014/09/03/casino-tycoon-sheldon-adelson-takes-100-million-gamble-on-gop-senate.html" style="outline: none; transition: all 0.14s ease 0s; text-decoration-line: none;">up to $100 million</a>&nbsp;to support Republicans in the 2014 Senate midterms—not to mention a host of right-wing pressure groups that enjoy the Adelsons’ largesse.</font></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); margin: 0px 0px 10px;"><strong><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Stance on Iran</font></strong></p><p style="margin: 0px 0px 10px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 204, 102);">Both Thomas Kaplan</font><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);"> and Sheldon Adelson have made hawkish statements about Iran.</font></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); margin: 0px 0px 10px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Adelson famously&nbsp;<a href="http://mondoweiss.net/2013/10/adelson-nuclear-negotiate" style="outline: none; transition: all 0.14s ease 0s; text-decoration-line: none;">proposed</a>&nbsp;launching a first-strike nuclear attack against Iran to send a message to Tehran’s nuclear negotiators. <b>And Kaplan&nbsp;<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sIqrkxO-HJs&feature=youtu.be&t=30m27s" style="outline: none; transition: all 0.14s ease 0s; text-decoration-line: none;">publicly compared</a>&nbsp;UANI’s effectiveness to advanced weaponry, presumably targeting Iran’s nuclear facilities, during a March 2014 event held in his honor. “United Against Nuclear Iran may not have had Tomahawk missiles and aircraft carriers at its disposal, [but] we’ve done more to bring Iran to heel than any other private sector initiative and most public ones,” Kaplan said.</b></font></p><p style="margin: 0px 0px 10px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style=""><b style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">Kaplan’s business interests also present an interesting angle on his funding anti-Iran advocacy like UANI’s.</b> <b style="background-color: rgb(255, 204, 102);">As I noted in a&nbsp;<a href="http://www.salon.com/2014/08/11/billionaires_sketchy_middle_east_gamble_meet_the_man_betting_on_war_with_iran/" style="outline: none; transition: all 0.14s ease 0s; text-decoration-line: none;">previous report for&nbsp;</a><a href="http://www.salon.com/2014/08/11/billionaires_sketchy_middle_east_gamble_meet_the_man_betting_on_war_with_iran/" style="outline: none; transition: all 0.14s ease 0s; text-decoration-line: none;"><em>Salon</em></a>, one of Kaplan’s mining concerns, the now-bankrupt Apex Silver Mines, Ltd., advertised itself in an annual report as a sound investment because of the potential for a “nuclear confrontation” with Iran.</b><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);"> Likewise with another silver venture called Sunshine Silver Mines: a 2011 investment&nbsp;</span><a href="http://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/1517006/000119312511183929/ds1.htm" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102); outline: none; transition: all 0.14s ease 0s; text-decoration-line: none;">prospectus&nbsp;</a><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">talked up silver investments in light of “political unrest in the Middle East.”<b> Amb. Mark Wallace,</b> who had by then already taken the helm at UANI, was overseeing Sunshine under the aegis of the Tigris Financial Group, where Wallace serves as CEO.</span></font></p><p style="margin: 0px 0px 10px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">At the time the prospectus talked up “political unrest,” three of Kaplan’s companies controlled Sunshine through a 70 percent stake; half of that stake was held by the Butterfield Trust—the same Kaplan trust that gave UANI almost $300,000 in 2013.</font></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); margin: 0px 0px 10px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Adelson’s family foundation declined to comment on their contribution to UANI. Neither UANI nor Kaplan’s office responded to requests for comment.</font></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); margin: 0px 0px 10px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">UANI’s 2013 “Schedule B” can be viewed&nbsp;<a href="https://www.scribd.com/doc/270211857/United-Against-Nuclear-Iran-2013-Schedule-B?secret_password=8Z9wtrKQd16N43tNemgl" style="outline: none; transition: all 0.14s ease 0s; text-decoration-line: none;">here</a>.</font></p></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"></font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">ref? nyt</font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b>Trump Abandons Iran Nuclear Deal He Long Scorned</b></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Video</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">TRANSCRIPT</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">0:00/0:51</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Trump Pulls Out of Iran Deal</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">President Trump said pulling out of the Iran nuclear deal sends a message that “the United States no longer makes empty threats.”</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">In just a short period of time, the world’s leading state sponsor of terror will be on the cusp of acquiring the world’s most dangerous weapons. Therefore, I am announcing today that the United States will withdraw from the Iran nuclear deal. In a few moments, I will sign a presidential memorandum to begin reinstating U.S. nuclear sanctions on the Iranian regime. We will be instituting the highest level of economic sanction. Today’s action sends a critical message. The United States no longer makes empty threats. When I make promises, I keep them.</font></div><div><b><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></b></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b>President Trump said pulling out of the Iran nuclear deal sends a message that “the United States no longer makes empty threats.</b>”CreditCredit...Doug Mills/The New York Times</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">By Mark Landler</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">May 8, 2018</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">WASHINGTON — President Trump declared on Tuesday that he was withdrawing from the Iran nuclear deal, unraveling the signature foreign policy achievement of his predecessor Barack Obama, isolating the United States from its Western allies and sowing uncertainty before a risky nuclear negotiation with North Korea.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">The decision, while long anticipated and widely telegraphed, leaves the 2015 agreement reached by seven countries after more than two years of grueling negotiations in tatters. The United States will now reimpose the stringent sanctions it imposed on Iran before the deal and is considering new penalties.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">Iran said it will remain in the deal, which tightly restricted its nuclear ambitions for a decade or more in return for ending the sanctions that had crippled its economy.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);"><b>
</b></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);"><b>So did France, Germany and Britain,</b>&nbsp;raising the prospect of a trans-Atlantic clash as European companies face the return of American sanctions for doing business with Iran. China and Russia, also signatories to the deal, are likely to join Iran in accusing the United States of violating the accord.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b>Mr. Trump’s move could embolden hard-line forces in Iran,</b>&nbsp;raising the threat of Iranian retaliation against Israel or the United States, fueling an arms race in the Middle East and fanning sectarian conflicts from Syria to Yemen.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">The president, however, framed his decision as the fulfillment of a bedrock campaign promise and as the act of a dealmaker dissolving a fatally flawed agreement. He predicted his tough line with Iran would strengthen his hand as he prepared to meet North Korea’s leader, Kim Jong-un, to begin negotiating the surrender of his nuclear arsenal.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">“This was a horrible one-sided deal that should have never, ever been made,” a grim-faced Mr. Trump said in an 11-minute address from the Diplomatic Reception Room of the White House. “It didn’t bring calm, it didn’t bring peace, and it never will.”</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">[Read the full transcript of President Trump’s remarks.]</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">Mr. Trump’s announcement drew a chorus of opposition from European leaders, several of whom lobbied him feverishly not to pull out of the agreement and searched for fixes to it that would satisfy him.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">It also drew a rare public rebuke by Mr. Obama, who said Mr. Trump’s withdrawal would leave the world less safe, confronting it with “a losing choice between a nuclear-armed Iran or another war in the Middle East.”</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">The response from Iran itself, however, was muted. President Hassan Rouhani declared that the Iranians intended to abide by the terms of the deal, and he criticized Mr. Trump for his history of not honoring international treaties. Mr. Trump won strong backing from Saudi Arabia and Israel, whose leader, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, hailed him for a “historic move” and “courageous leadership.”</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">What Changes and What Remains in the Iran Nuclear Deal</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">The restrictions on Iran’s nuclear program under the deal could survive.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b>Three times previously, the president’s aides had persuaded him not to dismantle the Iran deal. But Mr. Trump made clear that his patience had worn thin, and with a new, more hawkish cohort of advisers — led by Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and the national security adviser, John R. Bolton — the president faced less internal resistance than earlier in his administration.</b></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">While Mr. Trump had long scorned the Iran deal, threatening repeatedly to rip it up during the 2016 presidential race, his impulse to act now was reinforced by what he views as the success of his policy toward North Korea. He has told aides and foreign leaders that his policy of maximum pressure had forced Mr. Kim to the bargaining table, and that a similar policy of overwhelming pressure would enable the United States to extract a better deal from Iran.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b>As Mr. Trump abandoned one diplomatic project, he accelerated another — announcing that Mr. Pompeo was flying to Pyongyang, the capital of North Kore</b>a, to continue discussions with Mr. Kim about the upcoming summit meeting. He expressed hope that three Americans who are detained in the North would be released soon.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">“The message to North Korea,” Mr. Bolton told reporters, “is the president wants a real deal.”</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">He rejected the suggestion that the United States could not be trusted to keep its agreements when political winds change. “Any nation reserves the right to correct a past mistake,” Mr. Bolton said, citing President George W. Bush’s decision to withdraw from the Antiballistic Missile Treaty in 2001.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">The Trump administration, he said, would continue to work with Europeans to pressure the Iranians. He dismissed those who said the United States was on a path to war with Iran, though he did not present any new diplomatic initiatives. Another senior administration official acknowledged that there was no Plan B.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Months of intense negotiations with the Europeans to keep the accord in place collapsed over Mr. Trump’s insistence that the limits placed by the agreement on Iran’s nuclear fuel production were inadequate. Under the provisions of the deal, those limits, or “sunset clauses,” were to expire in 2030 — 15 years after the deal was signed.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b>As a result, the United States will reinstate all the sanctions it had waived as part of the nuclear accord, and it will impose additional economic penalties that are now being drawn up by the Treasury Departmen</b>t.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin declined on Tuesday to specify what additional sanctions the United States might impose, but he expressed confidence that they would still be powerful even if other American allies did not follow suit.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">“We do not want to let Iran use the U.S. financial markets and financial system and transact in dollars until they agree that not only will they not have a nuclear weapon now, but we’ve put in provisions that they will never have one,” Mr. Mnuchin said.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">In his announcement, Mr. Trump recited familiar arguments against the deal: that it does not address the threat of Iran’s ballistic missiles or its malign behavior in the region, and that the expiration dates for the sunset clauses open the door to an Iranian nuclear bomb down the road.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Even if Iran was in compliance, he said, it could “still be on the verge of a nuclear breakout in just a short period of time.” In fact, under the deal, the limits on Iran’s uranium enrichment and stockpiles of nuclear fuel mean that Iran would not be on the verge of a nuclear breakout until 2030.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Still, Mr. Trump said, the United States and its allies could not stop Iran from building a nuclear weapon “under the decaying and rotten structure of the current agreement.”</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">“The Iran deal is defective at its core,” he concluded.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Mr. Trump’s announcement capped a frantic four-day period in which American and European diplomats made a last-ditch effort to bridge their differences and preserve the agreement.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b>That effort began Friday, when Mr. Pompeo called his counterparts in Europe&nbsp;</b>to tell them that Mr. Trump was planning to withdraw from the deal, but that he was trying to win a two-week reprieve for the United States and Europe to continue negotiating. Mr. Pompeo, people familiar with the talks said, suggested that he favored a so-called soft withdrawal, in which Mr. Trump would pull out of the deal but hold off on reimposing some of the sanctions.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">The next day, the State Department’s chief negotiator, Brian H. Hook, consulted with European diplomats to try to break a deadlock over the sunset provision, under which the restrictions on Iran’s ability to produce nuclear fuel for civilian use expire after 15 years.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">The Europeans had already agreed to a significant compromise: to reimpose sanctions if there were a determination that the Iranians were within 12 months of producing a nuclear weapon. But officials said that still did not satisfy Mr. Trump, and the Europeans were not willing to go any further.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">By Monday, the White House began informing allies that Mr. Trump was going to withdraw from the deal and reimpose sanctions on oil and impose new sanctions against the Central Bank of Iran.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b>Under the financial sanctions, European companies will have 90 to 180 days to wind down their operations in Iran, or they will run afoul of the American banking system. The sanctions on oil will require European and Asian countries to reduce their imports from Iran.</b></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Mr. Mnuchin insisted that the restrictions would not drive up oil prices because other suppliers would pick up the slack. “My expectation is not that oil prices go higher,” he said. “To a certain extent, some of this was already in the market on oil prices.”</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b>Mr. Trump’s decision will test his already frayed relationship with European leaders. President Emmanuel Macron of France,&nbsp;</b>whom the president welcomed with a state dinner two weeks ago, learned of his decision in a phone call with Mr. Trump on Tuesday morning. Later, he said in a post on Twitter that the European allies “regret” his decision.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">“The international regime against nuclear proliferation is at stake,” he added.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">In a joint statement, Mr. Macron, Chancellor Angela Merkel of Germany and Prime Minister Theresa May of Britain noted pointedly that the United Nations Security Council resolution endorsing the nuclear deal remained the “binding international legal framework for the resolution of the dispute.” That raises the possibility that the United States will be found to be in violation in the Security Council.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Few people were more stung by Mr. Trump’s decision than those who worked for Mr. Obama. Though he has moved methodically to dismantle his predecessor’s legacy, his reversal of the Iran deal was particularly painful, given the five years of effort that went into imposing sanctions, and the more than two-year-long negotiation led by Secretary of State John Kerry that yielded the accord.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b>
</b></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b>“No rhetoric is required,” Mr. Kerry said in a statement. “The facts speak for themselves. Instead of building on unprecedented nonproliferation verification measures, this decision risks throwing them away and dragging the world back to the brink we faced a few years ago.</b>”</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"></font></div></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4" style=""></font></div></div></div>