UANI Announces Presidential Candidate Questionnaire, Pledge

NEW YORK--(BUSINESS WIRE)--On Monday, United Against Nuclear Iran (UANI) launched its 2012 Presidential Election Candidate Questionnaire and Pledge. As The Daily Caller reported on Friday, UANI is providing the candidates for the Republican Presidential nomination and President Obama with a detailed policy questionnaire about Iran and its pursuit of nuclear weapons.

“Bipartisan Group Wants Presidential Candidates On The Record About Iran’s Nuke Program.”

The questionnaire seeks responses to seventeen (17) questions and calls on the candidates to respond to UANI in December. UANI has further called on the candidates to sign a pledge that states that “a nuclear-armed Iran is unacceptable,” and affirms that each candidate, if elected President, would “take all necessary action through diplomacy, sanctions, covert action, and if necessary through the Military, to prevent Iran from becoming a nuclear-armed state.”

In a letter to the eight major Republican candidates, UANI President, Ambassador Mark D. Wallace, wrote:

United Against Nuclear Iran (“UANI”) is writing to seek your policy position on what we believe is the most important foreign policy challenge facing the United States: Iran and its illegal pursuit of a nuclear weapon. This letter and the attached policy questionnaire are particularly timely in light of the recently released International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) report of November 8, 2011, which confirmed that Iran has been working to build a nuclear weapon.

During the 2008 Presidential campaign the leading Republican and Democratic candidates were united in their belief that Iran’s ongoing pursuit of a nuclear weapon was unacceptable. Upon his election President Obama extended a hand of peace to Iran in the hope that a new approach could bring about a change in the regime’s dangerous behavior. Unfortunately, now some 1,055 days later, Iran has rejected that hand of peace and instead increased its hostile acts against the United States.

Either President Obama or the next President will face the growing danger of a nuclear armed Iran and how America’s foreign policy will confront this danger will be a key issue of concern for Americans across the political spectrum and particularly UANI’s supporters.

UANI sent a similar letter to President Obama’s reelection campaign.

The questionnaire asks 17 questions, including:

1. Do you agree that any company, U.S. or multinational, that does business in Iran should be barred from receiving U.S. Federal taxpayer money? As President, will you take action to bar any such company from being awarded government contracts and support legislation that works to achieve this end?

4. … Do you agree that the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) should require companies that avail themselves of the U.S. capital markets to disclose all business activities that they conduct in Iran, so that investors can make fully informed decisions?

7. Do you agree with the 92 members of the U.S. Senate that have called for the imposition of sanctions against the Central Bank of Iran?

9. Do you agree that the short-term costs of embargoing Iranian crude exports are worth the benefits of preventing the Iranian regime from acquiring nuclear weapons?

10. … Do you agree that the EU should impose a ban on Iranian crude oil imports?

13. Given that Iran kills U.S. and NATO troops in Iraq and Afghanistan, is allied with al-Qaeda, and has plotted terrorist attacks on U.S. soil, would you classify Iran as a wartime enemy of the U.S.?

14. As President, would you do whatever it takes to prevent Iran from acquiring nuclear weapons? Please describe what actions you would be willing to take. What more should the U.S. be doing now to prevent Iran from becoming a nuclear-armed state?

16. … Do you believe it is time for the U.S. and like-minded nations to work together outside of the Security Council to impose more meaningful multilateral sanctions against Iran? What action would you take to convince Russia and China to join in such sanctions? Would you be able to prevent Russia and China from blocking your broader global effort to sanction Iran?

UANI plans to publicize the results of the questionnaires and pledges in advance of the Iowa caucuses, in hopes of providing voters with a clear and unambiguous understanding of the candidates’ positions on the danger of a nuclear armed Iran.

Click here to view UANI’s questionnaire and pledge.
Click here to read the Daily Caller article, “Bipartisan Group Wants Presidential Candidates On The Record About Iran’s Nuke Program.”