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- Iran has been allowed to purchase Covid-19 vaccines from COVAX.
- Central Bank Governor Abdolnaser Hemmati said Iran would pay $ 244 million for 16.8 million doses.
- Hemmati said the United States approved the purchase.
Iran has obtained US approval to transfer funds for coronavirus vaccines from abroad, the central bank chief said, as its daily death toll fell to a three-month low.
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Central Bank Governor Abdolnaser Hemmati said an Iranian bank had received the backing of the US Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control to transfer the money to a Swiss bank to pay for vaccines.
“They [Americans] we have imposed sanctions on all our banks. They accepted this case under pressure from world public opinion, “Hemmati told state television.
There was no immediate reaction from the United States to Hemmati’s remarks.
Hemmati said Iran would pay nearly $ 244 million for initial imports of 16.8 million doses of the vaccines from COVAX, a multi-agency group dedicated to ensuring fair access to vaccines for low- and middle-income countries.
Deceased
Iranian officials have repeatedly said that US sanctions prevent them from making payments to COVAX, which some 190 economies have joined.
Iran’s Shifa Pharmed began registering volunteers this week for human trials of the country’s first national Covid-19 candidate vaccine, Iranian media reported, as it appeared to be brewing a factional dispute over the use of imports.
We do not recommend injecting foreign coronavirus vaccines to the personnel of the Revolutionary Guard and the Basij [voluntary militia]”The Iranian media said quoting Mohammed Reza Naqdi, deputy head of the hardline Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps.
Health Ministry spokeswoman Sima Sadat Lari previously told state television that 152 people had died from Covid-19 in Iran in the past 24 hours, the lowest number since September 18, bringing the total to deaths to 54,308 in the worst affected country in the Middle East. .
The drop in deaths comes after more than a month of nighttime traffic curfews and other restrictions in big cities. Police said 96,000 tickets were issued nationwide on Wednesday for drivers violating the curfew.
Officials warned that the danger of a resurgence of infections is enormous.
US President Donald Trump withdrew from the 2015 nuclear deal between Iran and six world powers in 2018 and imposed new sanctions on the country.
The rise to power of President-elect Joe Biden has raised the possibility that Washington could rejoin the agreement.
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