With the Rouhani Government publicly setting the goal of removal of all sanctions over Iran’s nuclear programme, the regime raised the rhetoric on Wednesday in a letter from Alireza Marandi — President of Iran’s Academy of Medical Sciences and former Health Minister — to United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon.
Marandi, who has written Ban on two previous occasions, “underscored that these inhumane sanctions…are definitely having a significant and negative impact on the health of the Iranian public including women, children, hospital patients, and anyone on medication”.

The doctor continued that, with the inability to collect needed medicines, there were “more and more cases of the gradual malnutrition and death of children and of patients with specific diseases”.

The US has argued that the sanctions do not block the sale of drugs and medical equipment to Tehran; however, those exports have been significantly restricted by the restrictions on financial transactions.

Some analysts — including inside Iran — have argued that mismanagement has contributed to the crisis. Last December, Health Minister Marziyeh Vahid Dastjerdi was dismissed after she complained that the Central Bank was not providing the required funds for import of the medical supplies.

For Marandi, however, these were not matters for debate:

“The gross negligence of the United Nations and other international organizations towards this issue of great importance, besides being recorded on the pages of history, will further weaken these already diminished international bodies in defending the inalienable rights of innocent individuals and populations in the face of sadistic collective punishment.”



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Iran Media: What Chemical Attack in Syria?
Press TV uses the rather weak resolution from the United Nations last night to set out Iran’s line on the Syrian attacks on Wednesday that killed at least 1360 people near Damascus: “Chemical Attack in Syria Yet to Be Confirmed: UN Security Council“.

The report emphasizes, “The Syrian government and the army denied any role in the alleged chemical attack,” and then turns to Moscow for support: “Russia also called for an objective and professional investigation into the alleged attack, adding that previous such reports have proven false.”

By EA WorldView

 

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