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TEHRAN: President Hassan Rouhani said Saturday that Washington required Iranian transactions for novel coronavirus vaccines to go through US banks and expressed fear that the money could be seized.
US President Donald Trump has imposed wave after wave of sanctions on the Islamic Republic since 2018, when he unilaterally withdrew from the Iran nuclear deal.
Iran has frozen assets in several countries, including the United States.
“We want to transfer money from a country where our money is” to buy the vaccine and “this country has accepted,” Rouhani said during a meeting of Iran’s coronavirus task force, without identifying the country in question.
In theory, drugs are exempt from sanctions, but in reality, international banks tend to reject transactions involving Iran to avoid being exposed to potential litigation.
The US Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control had initially indicated that it “had no problem” with such a transfer of funds, he said.
But “he said later that the money had to go through a US bank first before being transferred” for the purchase of the vaccine, Rouhani said.
In April, the Iranian president said the country had won a legal “victory” over $ 1.6 billion of its long-frozen assets at the request of the United States in Luxembourg.
Who can trust people like you? You have stolen our money everywhere you found it, ”Rouhani said Saturday, addressing the US administration.
The Islamic Republic has been battling the deadliest outbreak of the new coronavirus in the Middle East since February, with nearly 1,195,000 cases and more than 54,500 deaths, according to official figures.
Health Minister Saeed Namaki said earlier this month that Iran had “previously purchased” about 16.8 million doses of vaccines “through Covax,” without specifying which vaccine.
Covax is an international initiative that aims to ensure equitable access to coronavirus vaccines for all countries.
Buying the vaccine “could be more expensive and take time, but it will certainly happen,” Rouhani said Saturday.
Iran has also asked for volunteers to start clinical trials of its own vaccine, which it began developing in the spring, the Health Ministry said.
