The US is deliberately preventing Iran from fighting the coronavirus, Moscow is urging Washington to lift Iran’s sanctions immediately, the Russian Foreign Ministry said.
“Against the background of incoming reports of the growing pandemic caused by the COVID-19 virus, we cannot but pay attention to the unfair, unequal situation in which the Islamic Republic of Iran is our good neighbor and partner”, – the Foreign Ministry said in a statement.
Earlier, Iranian President Hassan Rouhani said that unilateral sanctions imposed by the Americans in May 2018 as part of the “maximum pressure” campaign have become a powerful obstacle to the effective fight against the spread of infection. The Russian Foreign Ministry believes that the cause of many victims of coronavirus in Iran lies not only in the disease itself, but also in the fact that the US deliberately prevents it from confronting.
The report emphasizes that “the US inhumane policy causes deep regret, alarm and serious concern” in Moscow. The Foreign Ministry strongly urged Washington to “face the truth and take an overdue decision on the immediate lifting of the sanctions restrictions striking on fundamental human rights in Iran”.
“The world pandemic is not the time for settling geopolitical accounts, all the more so without any justification, but invented in Washington for the tasks of satisfying one’s own ambitions”, – the Foreign Ministry said.
In Iran, the number infected with a new type of coronavirus has reached 14.9 thousand people. At least 129 patients died in a day. The total number of victims increased to 853.
Last week, WHO announced a pandemic outbreak of coronavirus spreading from Chinese Wuhan. The disease is named COVID-19. To date, almost 170 thousand infections have been recorded in the world, of which 75 thousand have recovered, more than 6.5 thousand have died. Cases of infection have been reported in more than 140 countries, the center of the epidemic has moved from China to Europe.
Up-to-date information on the real situation with coronavirus in Russia and in the world is presented on the government Internet portal stopkoronavirus.ru.