The government of the Islamic Republic of Iran is illegitimate, oppressive, and dangerous. We have already witnessed the nation’s leaders rig a popular election, beat women for wearing too little clothing, execute individuals for being homosexual, and pursue nuclear weapons while calling for the destruction of Israel and the United States.
Yet some western companies continue to support the Iranian regime by doing business, unabated and unapologetically, with the Islamic Republic. It’s time to name and shame them, and we’ll do so with the information provided by United Against Nuclear Iran. Ready? Let’s go.
- Air France
- Aeroflot
- Austrian Airlines
- Barclays PLC
- BASF
- Bayer
- BMW
- BNP Paribas
- Bombardier
- Bosch
- Bridgestone
- Chrysler
- Coca-Cola
- ConocoPhillips
- Daimler
- Ericsson
- Exxon Mobile
- Halliburton
- Hewlett-Packard
- Honda
- Honeywell
- HSBC
- Hyatt Hotels
- ING Group
- Kia
- Lloyds of London
- MasterCard
- Mercedes-Benz
- Mitsubishi
- Nestle
- Nissan
- Nokia
- PepsiCo
- Reuters
- Royal Dutch Shell
- Royal Bank of Scotland Group
- Samsung
- Siemens
- Sony
- Toshiba
- Tyson Foods
- UBS
- Visa
- Volkswagen
- Wells Fargo
- Unilver
- Volvo
Make no mistake. By providing the financial and structural support for the illegitimate, antisemitic, and dangerous regime in Tehran, these companies are becoming accomplices to Iran’s crimes. They are willingly ignoring the human rights abuses and violations of international law perpetrated by the evil regime.
Over the next few months we’ll devote some blog space to asking these corporations for answers. We’ll ask whether they support Iran’s pursuit of a nuclear weapon. We’ll ask whether they support Mahmoud Ahmadinejad’s antisemitic rants and promises to wipe Israel off the map. We’ll ask whether they support terrorist attacks against our troops in Iraq. We’ll demand answers.
In the mean time, I understand fully that you can’t avoid every single one of these companies. But here’s what I do ask, for the sake of national security and the oppressed population of Iran: If you have a choice between a company that doesn’t do business with the regime in Tehran, and one of the above companies that currently supports human rights abuses, go with the former.
Update 3/13/2010: I’ve now removed Tyson Foods from the list of companies supporting Iran. In a comment to this blog, spokesperson Gary Mickelson says all sales — both from the main company and from its subsidiaries — have been halted. There will be no additional shipments to Iran. Good for Tyson.
12. March 2010 at 1:25 pm
Tyson’s corporate leadership is sensitive to concerns about our company doing business in Iran and has stopped any additional sales to the country. We believe this is the right thing to do.
Tyson has a wholly-owned subsidiary called Cobb-Vantress, which is one of the world’s premier chicken breeding companies. Cobb is based in Siloam Springs, Arkansas, but is an international business that includes a European subsidiary that develops and sells its own breeding stock. This subsidiary had been selling breeding stock to a private chicken company in Iran since 2003. Annual sales to this Iranian business averaged less than $2 million. Because the sales involved a foreign subsidiary and the breeding stock was from Europe, it was not a violation of any U.S. laws.
Even though these sales were lawful, we have stopped them. Cobb Europe’s last shipment to the Iranian chicken company was in January and it will not be providing any more.