TV ad against Iranian nuclear program airs in the US

United Against Nuclear Iran launched the 35-second spot, which will run on cable news outlets for about two weeks.

By E.B. SOLOMONT, JERUSALEM POST CORRESPONDENT
Iranian nuclear technicians 248.88 ap (photo credit: AP [file])
Iranian nuclear technicians 248.88 ap
(photo credit: AP [file])
An American group that opposes a nuclear Iran has launched a television ad urging President Barack Obama to put pressure on Iranians and their leaders. United Against Nuclear Iran, which has warned that a nuclear-armed Iran is a danger to world peace, launched the 35-second spot on Tuesday. "Unclenched Fist" will run on cable news outlets for about two weeks. "Americans can do something," the narrator says, as images depict polar images of Iran's "vibrant" people, whom Americans have no quarrel with, and its leaders, including President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, described as "radical rulers seeking nuclear weapons." "We can put economic pressure on the Iranian regime… pressure to keep them from building a nuclear arsenal. And that will ensure security… for all of us," the narrator says. The group's president, Mark Wallace, said the ad was designed in response to the "open hand" President Obama has extended to Iran. "President Obama has made diplomatic overtures to the Iranian regime," Wallace said. "This open hand needs to be answered in some way." Wallace, who was an ambassador to the United Nations under former president George W. Bush, said the ad was not a reaction to Obama's recent speech in Cairo, when he voiced support for peaceful nuclear power in Iran. He described several ways the Iranian people could exert their influence, including voting in upcoming elections. "There is an election coming up," Wallace said. "We think that what's been lost in this debate is the Iranian people."