Iran only state that can’t buy medical items from abroad due to US bans: Envoy to Madrid

According to Press TV, Hassan Qashqavi made the remarks in an interview with Spain's La Razon newspaper on Wednesday.

He further said that any banking transaction requires permission from the US Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC), which blocks foreign firms from engaging in transactions and trade with countries on the US’s sanctions list.

The Iranian official described the bans as an “outright cruelty and a serious violation of humanitarian principles by a bullying and unilateralist power.”

The US regime have taken advantage of the coronavirus outbreak to make the “maximum pressure” campaign against Iran more effective, he said.

By using “unfounded and fabricated” news and spreading rumors through their affiliated media empire, including the anti-Iran Persian-language media based abroad, the Americans are working hard to divert the world’s public opinion from their inhumane acts, he said.

‘Countries should not observe US bans’

Similarly, Head of the Iranian Judiciary’s High Council for Human Rights Ali Baqeri Kani on Wednesday slammed Washington’s illegal sanctions and bullying, saying most of the European countries are abiding by the bans, which are throwing a wrench in the Islamic Republic’s fight against COVID-19.

The Europeans who claim to be advocates of human rights should be ashamed of their behavior at a time when Iran is grappling with the fast-spreading-virus, he said.

“The countries that do not cooperate with Iran in the coronavirus issue should be aware that they will be the cause of the spread and the international community should not remain silent on it,” he said.

Meanwhile, Iran’s Ambassador to Pakistan Mohammad Ali Hosseini, called on the international community to take actions against US anti-Iran sanctions.

“Leaders of world states, particularly those in the region, should immediately react to America’s bullying measures and sanctions, which have blocked the Iranian nation’s access to medical supplies,” he said in an article published in Pakistani press on Thursday.

WHO presses US to ease Iran bans

Separately, the Lebanese al-Mayadeen television channel quoted Director General of the World Health Organization (WHO) Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus as saying that Washington has agreed to remove part of the illegal sanctions against Iran.

The WHO’s chief said that he had stressed Iran’s need for protection against the coronavirus during a Tuesday phone conversation with US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo.

The US has agreed to suspend certain parts of the bans, particularly in the banking sector, during the global emergency situation, he said.

Meanwhile, Mike Ryan, executive director of the WHO’s emergencies program, said that the organization would constantly continue its cooperation with Iran.

He further called on the world nations to refrain from politicizing the crisis.

Iranian officials say the continued imposition of sanctions on Iran is contrary to the spirit of humanitarianism.

Hundreds of thousands of trained soldiers, volunteers, public health workers and specialists have been dispatched to affected regions up and down the country to identify people with this new infectious disease.

The International Court of Justice (ICJ) has ordered the US to lift the sanctions it has illegally re-imposed on humanitarian supplies to Iran.