United Against Nuclear Iran
New York advocacy group, founded 2008, pressing companies and governments to isolate Iran; EIN 26-2387657
| United Against Nuclear Iran
| |
|---|---|
| Type | 501(c)(3) |
| Registration ID | 26-2387657 |
| Headquarters | PO Box 1028, New York, NY 10185 |
| Website | unitedagainstnucleariran.com |
United Against Nuclear Iran (UANI) is a New York advocacy group founded in 2008 by Mark Wallace, Richard Holbrooke and Dennis Ross. It campaigns for the economic and diplomatic isolation of the Iranian government until, in its own wording, that government abandons a nuclear-weapons programme, support for armed groups, and human-rights abuses. It is a 501(c)(3), EIN 26-2387657, NTEE Q40 (international peace and security).[1][2]
Leadership
Mark Wallace, a former United States ambassador, is founder and chief executive. Jeb Bush is chairman. Jason Brodsky is policy director, Daniel Roth research director, Robert Benton general counsel and secretary, Kasra Aarabi director of Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps research, and Claire Jungman chief of staff. David Ibsen was executive director and president through December 2023. Past board and advisory names include Joe Lieberman (chairman in 2019), John Bolton, Mark Kirk, Tamir Pardo, August Hanning, Frances Townsend, Richard Dearlove, Gary Samore, Olli Heinonen and Irwin Cotler.[1][3]
2023 compensation reported to the Internal Revenue Service: Claire Jungman $190,000; Daniel Roth $151,411; Jason Brodsky $126,073; Mark Wallace $93,500. Robert Benton was reported at $103,646 on a later filing.[2]
Money
Cause IQ gives 2023 revenue of $3,704,564, expenses of $3,924,037 and assets of $401,561. Earlier revenue: $6,458,601 (2019), $4,220,130 (2020), $2,249,632 (2021), $4,477,102 (2022).[2][1]
InfluenceWatch lists Donors Trust at $3,685,000 in 2023, Counter Extremism Project United Inc at $2,220,000 in 2020 and $250,000 in 2021, and the Jewish Communal Fund at $100,000 in 2025. It reports all-time grants received of about $30 million from 15 funders. Militarist Monitor says trusts linked to Thomas Kaplan and family foundations of Sheldon Adelson and Miriam Adelson supplied more than three-quarters of 2013 revenue. Kaplan is reported to have given $843,000 over several years. Adelson was described as the majority funder before his death in 2021.[1][3]
Campaigns
The main instrument is a “name and shame” business-risk register. UANI claims credit for General Electric, Huntsman, Caterpillar, Ingersoll Rand, KPMG and Komatsu suspending Iran business, and for state measures in California, New York and Florida. A shipping track, MINERVA, is presented as a means of following vessels said to evade sanctions. An earlier campaign pressed New York hotels not to lodge Iranian officials, including Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. By July 2016 it had sent more than 200 letters to firms exploring Iran business. In November 2015 a letter in the Financial Times, signed by defence and foreign-policy figures, warned firms off Iran.[1][3]
It opposed the 2015 Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action. President Gary Samore resigned in August 2015 because he supported the deal and the organisation did not. A multi-million-dollar public campaign against the agreement began that month. Annual conferences near the United Nations General Assembly have drawn Mike Pompeo, John Bolton and Brian Hook. In 2018 speakers called for regime change. Wallace and Matt Schlapp later set up an online “CPAC for Iranians” platform.[1][3]
The Restis case
In 2014 Greek shipowner Victor Restis sued for libel after UANI accused him of working with the Iranian government. Attorney General Eric Holder asked the court to dismiss the case, citing national-security secrets. The case was dropped without a public explanation. Critics, including the American Civil Liberties Union’s Ben Wizner, treated the state-secrets claim as a shield for donor records. UANI did not disclose the donors in open court.[1][3]
Criticism
Michael Rubin criticised UANI in 2020 for sharing platforms with the Mujahedin-e Khalq; board members and the founder have spoken at its rallies. Russia’s foreign ministry in 2019 accused it of pressuring Russian firms. Militarist Monitor places it with neoconservative and pro-Israel networks, and notes that claims of an active Iranian weapons programme, and of an Iranian link to the 11 September 2001 attacks, are disputed by United States intelligence assessments. A former Obama official argued that the short-term isolation campaign risked either an Iranian weapon or a war.[1][3]
Kaplan said in 2014: “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.”[3]
See also
External links
Notes
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 1.4 1.5 1.6 1.7 InfluenceWatch, United Against Nuclear Iran (UANI), accessed January 2026.
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 Cause IQ, United Against Nuclear Iran, figures for the year ended 31 December 2023.
- ↑ 3.0 3.1 3.2 3.3 3.4 3.5 3.6 Militarist Monitor, United Against Nuclear Iran, advisory list as of 2019.