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Iranian nurses caring for pandemic patient “made martyrs” by Trump’s “maximum pressure” sanctions
US ‘blocking Iran from purchasing Korean coronavirus testing kits’ claims Tehran
Iran has complained that ongoing US sanctions have hampered the import of medical items and products needed in the fight against the coronavirus outbreak.
Donald Trump’s refusal to relent in his heavy sanctions campaign against Iran even amidst the health emergency caused by the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic has made Iranian nurses “martyrs” to his “maximum pressure” campaign against the Islamic Republic, according to ​a piece​ p​ ublished by Foreign Policy on April 16.
“The Trump administration’s sanctions have made it impossible for Iranian medical personnel to keep themselves safe [by obtaining enough protective equipment] amid the pandemic,” the article contends, adding: “Upwards of 100 Iranian health workers have died from the coronavirus, prompting Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei to announce in March that doctors and nurses who die from the infection will be recognized as “martyrs”.
The article quotes Alan Veisi, a biomechanics engineer at Baran MicroTech, a company in Iran that produces some medical equipment that the country isn’t able to import due to sanctions. He is cited as saying that even one of Tehran’s most prominent hospitals, Imam Khomeini, has shortages of N95 masks, gloves, and protective gear. “They need 500 to 1000 masks every day. But get only 300,” he said.
Iran’s Health Ministry spokesman Kianush Jahanpour on April 18 said that the US was “blocking purchases” of coronavirus (COVID-19) testing kits from South Korea.
Writing on his Twitter account in Persian, he lashed out at Washington and expatriate anti-Iranian regime television channels for colluding in blocking such exports to Iran. He also uploaded a failed SWIFT letter of credit of ₩5.3bn ($4.1mn) involving South Korea’s Woori Bank and Iran’s Bank Keshavarzi.
In the printout from the Korean bank, the message text reads: “We do not advise SWF messages according to our international sanction policy. Therefore we will disregard YR MT700.”
Woori Bank and Industrial Bank of Korea are the two Seoul-headquartered banks where Tehran keeps significant won-denominated reserves built up from South Korean purchases of Iranian oil made before the US last year started threatening sanctions against any discovered acquisition of crude from Iran.
The funds in South Korea are deemed as permitted for use in humanitarian trade; however, despite a ​message from the US recently t​hat exports of medical items to Iran related to the coronavirus fight would be okayed, the reality is that banks are generally not willing to risk any possible US repercussions.
9.1.8​ Agriculture & commodities sector news
Grain exports from Russia’s Volgograd region to Iran expanded by 30% y/y to 233,000 tonnes in the first five months of this year, a representative of the region’s agriculture committee informed TASS news agency.
Using the Caspian Sea transit route, Russia and Kazakhstan have become the main wheat and grain sources for Iran amid the ongoing collapse of the Iranian rial (IRR) and two years of US unilateral sanctions that have caused trade
51​ IRAN Country Report July 2020 www.intellinews.com