Iran Health Minister Urges WHO to Help End US Sanctions
TEHRAN (Tasnim) – Iranian Health Minister Saeed Namaki called on the World Health Organization (WHO) to take the necessary measure for the termination of the US sanctions against people of Iran amid the COVID-19 outbreak.
In a Tuesday letter to WHO Director General Tedros Adhanom, the Iranian health minister asked the UN agency to take the necessary measures to terminate the illegitimate and unilateral American sanctions that have inflicted pain on the people of Iran and other nations and have had negative consequences for the world health.
The time has come for an international call for the removal of the sanctions to protect the health of people, he added.
Highlighting Iran’s struggle against the coronavirus pandemic and the illegal sanctions simultaneously over the past seven months, Namaki said, “The legal and legitimate expectation in such an emergency is that the World Health Organization, the United Nations, and all international agencies make sure that medicine and humanitarian supplies are made available to people of Iran.”
After the unilateral and illegal withdrawal from the 2015 nuclear deal, the US administration has imposed widespread and cruel sanctions on the Iranian people, Namaki deplored.
In the meantime, blocking Iran’s access to the global banking channels has harmed the country’s economy and disrupted the trade of medicine and medical equipment amid the outbreak of the coronavirus pandemic, the minister added, stressing that the US must obey the International Court of Justice’s ruling which orders Washington to lift bans on the free export of medicine to Iran.
The Iranian administration has repeatedly said it is engaged in a battle on two fronts at the same time, dealing with the cruel foreign sanctions and addressing the coronavirus and its economic consequences.
Iranian President Hassan Rouhani said in June that the main priority in the administration’s economic plans is to control prices and supply the basic means of life.