Fairfield, CT – General Electric Co., the world’s biggest maker of power-generation and medical imaging equipment, signed an advocacy groups statement affirming the company’s policy against conducting business with Iran.
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The declaration, from the organization, follows the Fairfield-based company’s decision in December 2004 to end new business in the Middle Eastern country. GE announced that decision amid concern by then-President George W. Bush’s administration that the country was speeding development of a nuclear weapon. At the time, Iran provided less than 1 percent of GE’s annual revenue.
As part of its pledge, GE will provide humanitarian health care products to Iranians, according to an e-mailed statement from United Against Nuclear Iran and Peter O’Toole, a company spokesman. GE will donate any profits from such assistance to charitable organizations including the International Rescue Committee, a nonprofit organization, according to the statement.
“For years we have not permitted doing business with state sponsors of terrorism, and this certification is simply further, independent evidence,” O’Toole said in an interview.
After GE’s 2004 decision, the company finished projects under way that its non-U.S. units had agreed to, mostly contracts from GE Hydro in Canada, GE Oil & Gas in Italy and its GE Medical Europe division in France. The company took on no new projects in Iran afterward, O’Toole said.
United Against Nuclear Iran is a non-partisan organization that seeks to prevent the Middle Eastern country from acquiring nuclear weapons, according to its Web site.
The Obama administration has concluded that Iran is close to having enough uranium to build a nuclear weapon if it decided to enrich the radioactive material further.
The Bipartisan Policy Center in Washington said this week that the United States should begin preparing crippling sanctions against the country and make it clear a military strike is possible if Iran presses forward with its nuclear program.
KOL HAKOVED
Iran is a sovereign nation. Nations have been at war with each other for years. They have every right to attempt to aquire and build any weapon they desire.
Yes the world has the right to try to prevent it from happening, including financial pressures and sanctions, but you can’t say they don’t have a right.
We live in a world where people have started deciding other peoples rights. We have regressed severly with our attempts at being free.
For years people screamed that the liberal movement is dangerous for this reason, as it only accords rights to people that agree with the current rights movement. We can now see how right they were.
The same people that promote womens rights want to take away our right to shechita. Those that approve gay marriage want to take away our right wear yarmulkas in public. Those that are against profiling of Muslims want to limit our right to have large families. Those that want green energy want to limit healthcare to older people. Those that want open American borders want to end Bris Milah.
As frum jews we should be very weary of imposing ideological beleifs on others, and focus on preserving our religious life and practices.
Unfortunately today, many of our own enemies are within our own community.
Actually, they don’t. One person doesn’t have the right to endanger another. If Iran acquires nuclear weapons, it places other countries in the region in danger. This includes Israel, where many Jews, including Satmar chassidim who are at least at “authentic” as you, reside.