MNA – Head of Plan and Budget Organization (PBO) Mohammad Bagher Nobakht said on Tuesday that the imposers of sanctions on Iran have not issued any permit for imports of medicine and food to Iran.

Nobakht added that all the ongoing imports to Iran are done by circumventing the sanctions.

As Iranian people are grappling with the disease and require international support in the fight against coronavirus, it is a matter of regret to say that the US government has embarked on exerting the toughest economic sanctions against the Islamic Republic of Iran.

Not only have the US hostile moves taken against Iran led to worsening the current situation, but also these sanctions have hampered access of Iranian people to the pharmaceutical and medical supplies.

Iranian officials and several others from different countries have advised the US government to abandon its cruel and unjust approaches that have targeted the health of Iranian people.

Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif has sent a letter to the UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres, urging the body to disregard Washington sanctions on Tehran amid coronavirus outbreak.
Iranian ambassador to London, Hamid Baeidinejad, has censured the impact of the US sanctions on Iran amid the coronavirus outbreak as 'terrorism'.

Chinese Foreign Ministry Spokesman Geng Shuang said that US sanctions has restricted Iran’s ability to combat the outbreak of the deadly coronavirus. Speaking in his daily press briefing on Monday, he called the US sanctions imposed against Iran ‘unilateral and inhumane’ and stated, “both government and people of Iran are fighting against coronavirus and imposition of these sanctions seriously hampers the efforts in fighting against the pandemic.

As of Tuesday, the death toll from the coronavirus outbreak, officially known as COVID-19, in Iran has risen to 988 with 16,169 confirmed cases.