Azerbaijan, Baku, May 3 /Trend S.Isayev/
If if Iran doesn't curb its nuclear program, it will soon turn into place where international commerce becomes impossible, UANI (United Against Nuclear Iran U.S. group) Communications Director Nathan Carleton told Trend.
He was commenting on the recent exit of international accounting companies from Iran.
Several days ago, international companies Grant Thornton, RSM, and Crowe Horwath have announced that they were ending their business in Iran.
In particular, Grant Thornton, a prominent U.K.-based global accounting network, has this month taken the responsible action of terminating its relationship with the Iranian firm Rymand & Co.
Global accounting network RSM and the U.S.'s Crowe Horwath have also said that they would end their relationships with their respective partner Iranian firms, Dayarayan Auditing & Financial Services and Hoshiyar/Behmand & Co.
"We were very proud to work with Grant Thornton on this issue. Grant Thornton made it clear to us that it wanted to do the right thing, and its CEO, Ed Nusbaum, personally managed the exit," Carleton said. "While I'm sure Grant Thornton was aware of the issue to some degree, bringing it to attention seemed to spur action."
Further speaking, Carleton said that Iran is a risky place to do business, due to sanctions, corruption, and economic mismanagement by the regime.
"It is common that an entity doing business in Iran loses money, or is unable to repatriate its money out of the country," he said. "We are seeing more and more business entities realize that Iran is not a financially good market to be in, and taking their business elsewhere."
He also said that there still are accounting companies working in Iran.
"According to our research, there are some mid-size accounting firms still in Iran, such as Nexia, Moore Stephens, HLB, AGN, IAPA," Carleton said. "We call on these firms to follow the lead of Grant Thornton, RSM, and Crowe Horwath and also leave the country."
"We hope that the Iranian leaders are seeing that continuing to pursue a nuclear program will fully crash their country's economy: there is no turning back, unless they abandon the program," Carleton noted.
The U.S. and its Western allies suspect Iran of developing a nuclear weapon - something that Iran denies. The Islamic Republic has on numerous occasions stated that it does not seek to develop nuclear weapons, using nuclear energy for medical researches instead.
"Iran will turn into a place where international commerce becomes impossible, and total economic isolation exists," Carleton underscored. "We hope that the world will enact an economic blockade on Iran, and force the regime to truly decide whether a bomb is worth a ruined economy."
United Against Nuclear Iran (UANI) is a non-profit advocacy organization in the United States that seeks "to prevent Iran from fulfilling its ambition to become a regional super-power possessing nuclear weapons."
Along with other advocacy campaigns, the organization leads efforts to pressure companies to stop doing business with Iran as a means to halt the Iranian regime's nuclear program and its alleged development of nuclear weapons.
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