Rouhani: US Terrorists Admit Sanctions on Iran’s Imports of Coronavirus Vaccine

“The US Treasury officials said three days ago that they are ready to remove sanctions on the coronavirus vaccine tomorrow which means that the terrorists have completely admitted that they had closed every door to these (Iranian) people and blocked all banking activities,” Rouhani said, addressing a ceremony to inaugurate economic projects in Iran.

He noted that the new US administration believes that it should lift the sanctions and admitted the wrongness of Trump’s measures, adding that now that Iran is needless of face masks and even exports them and has produced its own coronavirus vaccine, Washington has decided to remove sanctions on these goods.

“God willing, sanctions will be removed soon and foreign capital will flow into Iran,” Rouhani said.

The US Treasury Department recently issued guidance easing the way for delivery of products such as face masks, ventilators, and vaccines to combat the coronavirus pandemic to heavily sanctioned countries like Iran, Venezuela, and Syria.

The guidance contradicts the previous remarks by US officials on exemption of humanitarian items from sanctions.

The Iranian foreign ministry had declared earlier that despite Washington’s claims of cooperation to transfer drugs to Iran via the new Swiss-launched payment mechanism, the US is troubling the process amid the coronavirus outbreak in the country.

Although US claims that medicines and medical equipment are not under sanctions, they have practically blocked the transfer of Iran’s financial resources in other countries into the Swiss Humanitarian Trade Arrangement (SHTA), former Iranian Foreign Ministry Spokesman Seyed Abbas Mousavi said.

As the death toll from the virus surges, Iran intensifies its preventive safety measures. Closures of schools and most universities have been extended until further notice.

Rouhani on September 12, 2020 blasted the US administration for blocking the country’s efforts to receive loan from the International Monetary Fund (IMF) to fight against coronavirus, saying that the American officials have forgotten humanity.

“We demanded the IMF for $5bln to assist us during the coronavirus outbreak for vaccine and medicine; all parties have voiced their agreement, but the US does not allow us to take the loan. They have distanced themselves from humanity to such an extent,” Rouhani said.

He added that even the friendly states whose banks are holding Iran’s money have been pressured by the US not to provide the country with access to its assets.

“History has not witnessed such a crime, as you may not find any other country that cannot withdraw money from foreign banks to purchase and import medicine for its people,” Rouhani said.

He, meantime, said that the Americans are angry with the Iranian government’s appropriate management of the coronavirus outbreak despite the harshest-ever sanctions imposed on the country.

Last week, Iran’s High Council of Human Rights (HCHR) rapped the United States’ issuing sanctions waivers on the coronavirus-related items only after Tehran has made indigenous vaccines.

“82,000 Iranians were killed with the Coronavirus and the US issues sanctions waivers now after 16 months from the beginning of the virus spread and after Iran made its own vaccine,” HCHR tweeted on Sunday.

“The Iranian nation’s demand is to remove the illegal sanctions and punish those who imposed them,” it added.