Rouhani deplores US sanctions amid coronavirus outbreak

Iranian President: The Americans did not learn from this difficult situation and did not lift the illegal and cruel sanctions.

Elad Benari , 02/04/20
Hassan Rouhani

Iranian officials are continuing their verbal attacks on the United States which continues to impose sanctions on the Islamic Republic amid the coronavirus outbreak in the country.

On Wednesday, it was President Hassan Rouhani who blasted Washington, reported the Xinhua news agency.

“Unfortunately, Americans did not learn from this difficult situation,” Rouhani was quoted as saying.

The current situation was the best historic opportunity for the US officials to amend their mistakes by lifting their “illegal and cruel” sanctions, Rouhani added.

“Americans have always been against Iranians, but the current situation revealed their animosity more than ever,” he continued.

His comments come two days after Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif said the US sanctions have doubled Iranians’ suffering from the novel coronavirus outbreak in the country.

Zarif called for a global “moral will” against the US excessive demands, noting that “complying with sanctions should not lead to more war crimes.”

Since leaving the 2015 nuclear deal between Iran and world powers, the US has continuously reimposed sanctions on Iran.

Iranian leaders have said that the US sanctions “severely hamper” the Islamic Republic’s ability to fight coronavirus.

Despite the sanctions which block Iran from selling its crude oil and accessing international financial markets, Washington has offered Iran help in fighting the coronavirus.

Rouhani last week made clear that Iran had no intention of accepting the United States’ offer of humanitarian assistance and added that United States should lift sanctions if it wants to help Iran to contain the virus.

Iran is the worst-hit country by the virus in the Middle East. Iran’s Ministry of Health on Wednesday reported a total number of 47,593 cases and 3,036 deaths .

Tags:sanctions, US-Iran, Coronavirus, Hassan Rouhani

 

Content retrieved from: http://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/News.aspx/278172.