India Urged to Withstand Unjust US Sanctions

Iran's ambassador to India called on New Delhi and the rest of the international community to stand against the "unjust" American sanctions that are hurting millions of Iranians at a time of the coronavirus pandemic. "The Iranian health sector, although among the most resilient in the region and the world, has been affected directly and indirectly by these unjust, illegal and inhumane sanctions," Ali Chegeni said in a recent interview with Hindustan Times. The coronavirus disease, called COVID-19, emerged in China in December 2019 and has spread rapidly across the world since then, leading to over two million confirmed cases so far, according to official statistics, and killing nearly 130,000 people. In Iran, sanctions reimposed by the US in 2018 after its withdrawal from the 2015 nuclear deal have hampered the government's COVID-19 response, although Washington claims "in a hypocritical way" that humanitarian supplies are exempted. Chegeni explained that freezing Iran’s financial assets in various countries and denying Iran’s access to SWIFT for funds transfer and clear threats against several foreign banks have deterred them from doing undertaking any humanitarian transactions with Tehran. "More important than the stay-at-home order, we needed to support the people by relief packages. But as I said, Iran’s assets have been blocked by the US administration," he said.