U.S. sanctions make Iran more difficult

U.S. sanctions make Iran more difficult

Xinhua News Agency, Tehran, March 9 (international watch) U.S. sanctions increase Iran's resistance to epidemics

Xinhua News Agency reporter Chen Lin

The Iranian Ministry of Health announced on the 9th that as of the morning of the 9th, 595 new cases of new crown pneumonia were diagnosed in Iran, and a total of 7,161 confirmed cases, of which 237 died. Foreign Minister Zarif and other senior officials have recently condemned the United States for increasing sanctions during the new crown pneumonia epidemic, making it more difficult for Iran to fight the epidemic and calling on the United States to lift economic sanctions against Iran.

Analysts point out that at the crucial moment of Iran's fight against the epidemic, the continued imposition of unilateral sanctions by the United States is against humanitarian spirit, and the damage caused to innocent people by the sanctions also damaged the image of the United States.

Sanctions make it harder to fight the epidemic

Zarif said on social media on the 7th that the United States is replacing purely economic sanctions with medical sanctions on Iran. The U.S. government maliciously increased illegal sanctions on Iran in order to consume Iran's resources needed to fight the new crown pneumonia epidemic.

On February 28, US Secretary of State Pompeo said that the United States has provided assistance to Iran to combat the new crown pneumonia epidemic. Iranian President Rouhani said at a cabinet meeting on March 4 that the United States has been imposing sanctions on Iran's imports of food and drugs, but now wears a "compassionate mask" and claims to help Iran.

Analysts point out that Iran ’s lack of anti-epidemic material reserves is partly due to continued US sanctions. The United States withdrew from the Iran nuclear agreement in 2018 and re-imposed sanctions on Iran. Iran has been facing a shortage of civilian resources, especially medical supplies. The problem aggravated after the spread of new crown pneumonia.

Lu Jin, an expert on Iranian issues at the Institute of West Asian and African Studies of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, said that U.S. sanctions have a great impact on Iran's imports of medicines and medical equipment. The sanctions have sharply reduced Iran ’s oil revenue and made it difficult to settle foreign exchange for non-petroleum products. This has caused a government foreign exchange shortage and directly restricted the ability to pay for imported drugs and medical equipment. Although U.S. sanctions have exempted humanitarian supplies such as medicines, medical devices, and food, actual transactions are difficult.

Liu Lanyu, a visiting scholar at the University of Tehran and an Iranian expert at Tsinghua University, said that the biggest threat to U.S. sanctions is that companies are afraid to sell and donate medical supplies to Iran. Even if the United States proposes an exemption, they are worried about being "accounted for after the fall."

Watch out for humanitarian disasters

Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Moussavi said recently that under the influence of the epidemic, U.S. sanctions have caused great damage to vulnerable groups in Iranian society.

The lives of ordinary Iranians are affected by the combined effects of sanctions and the epidemic. Most of the hotels, restaurants and shops are closed, and the tourism industry is almost completely stagnant. Many people ’s incomes have fallen sharply, while the prices of basic living materials have risen to varying degrees.

Tehran resident Reza bluntly stated that the humanitarian crisis is spreading in Iran, and the United States must immediately lift sanctions before Iran can fully respond to the new crown pneumonia epidemic.

U.S. sanctions have long preceded humanitarian disasters. With the exception of Iran, the United States is currently imposing economic sanctions on countries such as Cuba, North Korea and Syria. In the 1990s, countries such as Iraq and Haiti have experienced humanitarian disasters such as a sharp decline in people's living standards and a substantial increase in infant and child mortality due to US sanctions.

American scholar Joey Gordon elaborates on how the United States dominated sanctions against Iraq from 1990 to 2003, and the catastrophic consequences that it caused.

Gordon warned that the United States should understand that imposing poverty on distant countries will not make the world a better place, nor will it make any party, including the United States, safer. (Participating reporter: Liu Pinran)