US sanctions have long limited the flow of humanitarian aid into Iran, which is a problem at the best of times. With Iran facing the third worst coronavirus outbreak of any country, those US sanctions are increasingly deadly, according to President Hassan Rouhani.
Rouhani has submitted a letter detailing the ways in which US sanctions are hindering the Iranian government’s attempts to fight coronavirus. Rouhani is also urging the US and the world to stop observing the sanctions during this emergency.
Iranian FM Javad Zarif echoed this on Twitter, saying it “is immoral to let a bully kill innocents.” Iran is being particularly clear about the trouble they’re in, seeking $5 billion in funding from the IMF particularly to try to contain the coronavirus outbreak.
US sanctions are a particularly complicating factor because officially, US law does not limit humanitarian goods going to Iran, but the banking sanctions do scare international banks and other outlets away from facilitating what would be otherwise perfectly legal aid shipments.
The Iranians also rejected a U.S. offer of coronavirus help.
https://www.reuters.com/article/us-china-health-iran-foreign-ministry-idUSKCN20M2WD
No surprise; the U.S. would probably be more interested in Iran’s actual capacity to respond to COVID-19 than delivering real aid, which the lifting of a few sanctions could do just as well if not better than any delivered U.S. materials.
The U.S. went ambulance chasing in Iran back in the 2003 Bam earthquake, too.
Absolutely immoral to leave innocent men women and children die in the street.
As our leaders high five each other.
I ‘googled’ U.S. treasury dept imposes fines for US sanctions against Iran
I got quite an eyeful, I stopped after seeing billions of $ of fines levied against European and Indian banks and companies for what are most likely legal civilians transactions but if the U.S. says ‘pay or you cannot do business with the U.S.’ it poisons the waters.
If a private medical company sees this who on earth is going to risk doing business w/Iran? The creepy thing is that the evil politicians and think tanks in the U.S. know this. Mnuchen is going straight to hell. The moral preening while doing this evil is more than any decent person should be able to bear.
I agree with you 100% on this, Chris. The US must lift sanctions on Iran – especially, in face of the coronavirus response. How on earth will Iran be able to correctly respond to this disease in order to contain it, if idiots such as the Satanic Mnuchen refuse to lift these evil sanctions? Yes, Chris, he’s definitely going straight to hell since he doesn’t care about anyone but himself.
I look forward to the day when the US of A gets payback for all the filthy, evil things it has done to the rest of the world.