The Iranian top security official says the virus of imposing sanctions and reneging on pledges is more dangerous to international security than the coronavirus.
“The virus of sanctions and failure to honor promises is threatening international security more than the coronavirus,” Secretary of Iran’s Supreme National Security Council (SNSC) Ali Shamkhani tweeted on Saturday.
Regarding Washington’s offer of assistance to Iran, Shamkhani said “the US claim that it is ready to help Iran can only be verified through the country’s implementation of its legal obligations under the JCPOA.”
Shamkhnai was referring to the Joint Commission of the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action, which was signed in 2015 between Iran and six world states — namely the US, Germany, France, Britain, Russia and China — and endorsed by United Nations Security Council Resolution 2231.
Last week, President Donald Trump said that the US was willing to help the Iranians with the coronavirus outbreak, adding that “all they have to do is ask.” US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo also claimed that the Islamic Republic did not have a solid healthcare infrastructure and that Washington had offered to help Tehran with the coronavirus response.
Iran’s President Hassan Rouhani rejected the US offer of help as insincere, saying Washington should first lift its sanctions on medical supplies if it really seeks to help the Islamic Republic.
The same country that has been taking the most “sinister” of actions against the Iranians over the past two years by re-imposing sanctions on their supplies of food and medicine is now hiding behind “a mask of sympathy” and pretending that it means to assist the nation, he emphasized.
The US reinstated its sanctions against Iran in May 2018 after unilaterally scrapping the JCPOA.
The illegal US bans have severely impacted the Iranians’ access to life-saving medical supplies and hampered the country’s ability to respond to the coronavirus.
Official: 1,076 new patients; 1,669 recovered
On Saturday, an Iranian Health Ministry official reported 21 new deaths from the coronavirus and 1,076 fresh cases in the past 24 hours, bringing the overall tolls to 145 dead and 5,823 infected.
“More than 16,000 people are currently hospitalized as suspect cases,” ministry spokesman Kianoush Jahanpour said in a televised news conference as he announced the tolls.
He added that 1,669 of confirmed cases have recovered from the illness, including in some provinces where recovery rate has reached 40 percent.
Jahanpour said the number of specialized coronavirus labs in the country has risen to 30.
“We hope that by increasing the number of laboratories to 100, we will be able to bring down the time of diagnosis to 48 hours, even though our doctors immediately begin to treat patients who show symptoms and supportive measures are taken right away,” he said.
Iran also began Saturday trying 10 people charged with hoarding health supplies and disrupting the country’s economy amid the coronavirus outbreak.
The defendants, including three Tajik nationals and seven Iranians, are charged with trying to smuggle 2.6 million face masks to China, Tasnim news agency reported.
Iran’s Judiciary chief Ebrahim Raeisi on Monday ordered severe punishment for those hoarding pharmaceutical and health products which are crucially needed to fight the deadly virus outbreak.
Source: Iranian Agencies
