Gov’t Spokesman: West Engaged in Genocide Campaign Against Iranian Patients

Bahadori Jahromi made the remarks in a Persian-language post on his twitter account while projecting that 220 Iranian thalassemia patients would be the victims of sanctions imposed by the United States against Iran by the end of the current Persian year (March 22, 2023).

“Seventy thalassemia patients lost their lives in the year 2018, 90 in 2019, 140 in 2020 and 180 died last year due to sanctions. According to the projections this year, 220 patients will be the victims of cruel sanctions. Add to this statistic, EB (epidermolysis bullosa) patients and all those [patients with rare and refractory diseases] in need of special medicinal products,” Bahadori Jahromi wrote.

“The West is taking revenge on Iranians through a genocide campaign against the patients,” he added.

In relevant remarks on Saturday, Iran’s Foreign Ministry Spokesman Nasser Kana’ani censured the US sanctions against the Islamic Republic, and said that the bans were the “backbone” of the so-called American human rights regulations.

“The whole Iranian people, without any distinction and discrimination, have been struggling for many years with the brutal sanctions of the United States, which have targeted their livelihood, jobs, health and normal life,” Kana’ani said.

“Even EB children were not exempted from the unilateral, illegal and cruel US sanctions. Sanctions are the backbone of American human rights,” he noted.

The United States, under the hawkish former president Donald Trump, unilaterally walked out of the 2015 Iran nuclear deal, known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), in May 2018 and reinstated crippling sanctions under the so-called “maximum pressure” campaign.

Over the past five years, the sanctions have targeted various aspects of Iranian lives ranging from economy to health and medical system.