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Kermanshah, Gilan, Bushehr, Zanjan, Ilam, Khorasan Razavi, Mazandaran, Alborz, West Azerbaijan, Central, Kerman , North Khorasan, Hamedan and Yazd were classified as “red”.
She added: “Kohgiluyeh and Boyer-Ahmad, Chaharmahal and Bakhtiari, Hormozgan, Fars and Golestan provinces are in a state of [amber] alert.
Separately, the health ministry said it had received just a small fraction of a promised $1bn infusion from Iran’s sovereign wealth fund to fight the coronavirus. “For months we have only received a small share of the $1 billion that the supreme leader approved from the development fund,” Health Minister Saeed Namaki said, according to the state-run Islamic Republic News Agency (IRNA).
“I don’t know what they are using it for that could be more important,” Namaki added.
President Hassan Rouhani asked for permission to withdraw the funds from the National Development Fund in March to help meet treatment and equipment costs. Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei approved the request in April. Tough US sanctions have complicated the import of some medical supplies needed to fight the pandemic, Iranian officials say.
2.5​ ​Russia refuses point-blank to recognise latest US sanctions on Iran
Russia on September 22 refused point-blank to pay heed to the new sanctions brought in by the US against Iran. They would have no political or practical consequences for Moscow’s cooperation with Tehran, Interfax news agency reported Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov as saying. ​“We are not afraid of US sanctions, we are used to them,” he was quoted as remarking.
The US on September 21 slapped new sanctions on Iran’s defence ministry and others involved in the Iranian nuclear, ballistic missile and conventional weapons programmes. Washington claims to have legally and unilaterally triggered a snapback of all UN sanctions against Tehran, but all other major powers on the UN Security Council insist its move lacked a legal basis.
The snapback, in the view of the US, means that an international arms embargo on Iran, due to incrementally expire from early October, will stay in place on an indefinite basis.
September 22 also saw Iran's President Hassan Rouhani address the 75th UN General Assembly with a speech in which he urged UN member states to take collective action against American warmongering and the violation of international rules and regulations by the US.
"They have sold hundreds of billions of dollars of weapons to their clients turning our region into a powder keg. Yet, they try in vain to deprive Iran of its minimum defence requirements, and disregard international law and global consensus in order to extend arms restrictions against Iran in contravention of the letter of UNSCR [United Nations Security Council Resolution] 2231," Rouhani said.
8​ IRAN Country Report October 2020 www.intellinews.com