Petition addressed to UN protests Iran sanctions

A petition, signed by more than 2,500 people and addressing the United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, has protested the sanctions targeting Iran’s medical imports.

The petition has been initiated by a group of Iranian political, cultural, and artistic figures. Former Iranian President Mohammad Khatami as well as Oscar-winning filmmaker Asghar Farhadi are among the signatories.

The signatories are calling for an end to the sanctions on medicine and medical supplies.

The petition says the Iranian people are bearing the brunt of the economic sanctions.

A dire shortage of life-saving medications has put the lives of hundreds of thousands of Iranians with serious illnesses at risk.

Iran and the six major world powers — Britain, China, France, Russia and the United States plus Germany — clinched an interim agreement in Geneva on November 24 to set the stage for the full resolution of the decade-old dispute over Tehran’s nuclear energy program.

Since the deal was struck, many US lawmakers have been pushing for more sanctions on Tehran despite the deal under which it was agreed that in exchange for Iran agreeing to limit certain aspects of its nuclear activities, it would be provided with a certain amount of sanctions relief and no more nuclear-related sanctions would be imposed on the country for six months.

Tehran has warned that any new sanctions against Iran would kill “the entire deal.”