Vatican Expresses Sympathy with Iran, Urges US to Lift Bans amid Pandemic
TEHRAN (Tasnim) – The Vatican said it has talked to US officials regarding Washington’s sanctions against Iran amid the outbreak of the deadly coronavirus in the country.
Recently, senior Iranian cleric Ayatollah Mostafa Mohaqqeq Damad penned a letter to Pope Francis and asked him to help lift the cruel US sanctions against Iran amid the COVID-19 pandemic.
The Vatican responded in a letter to the Iranian scholar and said that the Vatican’s secretary of state Cardinal Pietro Parolin had contacted US Ambassador to the UN Kelly Craft and relayed to the diplomat Iran’s concern, demanding Washington to pay attention to the issue.
Ayatollah Mohaqqeq Damad, who is a senior member of the Academy of Sciences of Iran, in his letter, said, “The sanctions have greatly multiplied the sufferings and afflictions of the oppressed Iranian Muslim people and have forced them to face countless problems that have had a profound and negative impact on their life, on their peace and spiritual tranquility and moreover, have deprived them of the most basic and inalienable human rights”.
The Vatican further expressed sympathy with people in Iran and all other countries gripped by the coronavirus, stating that this ordeal brings to light the fact that people are members of the same human community and should set aside enmity and hate.
In the letter, the Vatican said Pope Francis has urged all humans to live in peace and harmony on the planet earth.