As the number of coronavirus victims mounts, making Iran one of the pandemic’s epicentres, the ruling ayatollahs have spotted an opportunity.
They are driving an international campaign to have international sanctions lifted. Their main target is the tough economic sanctions imposed by the United States in response to Iran’s efforts to acquire nuclear weapons.
Those arguing for an end to the sanctions say that Iran’s economy, health systems and infrastructure are crumbling under their weight, preventing the government from effectively curbing the spread of the coronavirus among its citizens.
President Hassan Rouhani, in an open letter to the American people, declared: ‘The sanctions have drastically undermined the ability of the Iranian people to fight the coronavirus and some among them are losing their lives as a result.’
Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif claimed: ‘Iran is the only country in the world that does not have access to all of its resources in order to protect its citizens [and] cannot buy equipment and medical supplies easily. The combination of sanctions and the coronavirus makes it a more dangerous and terrible complication.’
These claims are contradicted by other public statements made by senior Iranian officials.
Rouhani himself said on 1 April: ‘The sanctions have failed to hamper our efforts to fight against the coronavirus outbreak.’
Mohammad Reza Shanehsaz, who heads Iran’s Food and Drug Administration, promised Iranians that the government could meet all needs ‘thanks in large part to imports’. He added, ‘I believe that soon we will not even need imports.’
Read the article by Ran Porat in The Strategist.