US Bans Hampering Global Efforts to Fight COVID-19 Crisis: Iran’s Envoy
TEHRAN (Tasnim) - Iran’s envoy to the United Nations (UN) said the unilateral sanctions by the US on countries like Iran, Syria and Yemen hamper efforts by the affected countries to import medical equipment and medicines needed to fight the COVID-19 crisis.
“These unilateral sanctions effectively target patients the most, and show how immoral, inhumane, and illegitimate these sanctions are,” Majid Takht-Ravanchi said on Thursday at a UN Security Council meeting to review the impact of the coronavirus.
He stressed that the lifting of sanctions is necessary to counter the spread of the flu-like pathogen in the targeted countries as well as across the world.
Noting that the US sanctions work to the detriment of the whole world, Takht-Ravanchi described the novel coronavirus as the “common enemy of mankind” and said the only way to combat the epidemiological crisis is through practical solidarity and global cooperation.
In recent months, calls have been growing inside the US and abroad for Washington to lift its unilateral sanctions, which are throwing a wrench into global efforts to rein in the respiratory disease known as COVID-19.
The number of people infected with COVID-19 across the world has exceeded 11 million and the death toll currently stands at 524,435.