HRW: US sanctions pose serious threat to Iranians’ right to health

Human Rights Watch (HRW) warns that the US’s harsh sanctions against Iran pose a serious threat to the Iranian people’s right to health, urging Washington to adopt swift measures aimed at facilitating trade of humanitarian goods with the Islamic Republic.

According to Press TV, the New York-based rights group said on Tuesday “The consequences of redoubled US sanctions, whether intentional or not, pose a serious threat to Iranians’ right to health and access to essential medicines—and has almost certainly contributed to documented shortages— ranging from a lack of critical drugs for epilepsy patients to limited chemotherapy medications for Iranians with cancer,.

Washington’s punitive measures have drastically constrained Iran’s ability to pay for humanitarian imports, added the 47-page report dubbed “‘Maximum Pressure: US Economic Sanctions Harm Iranians’ Right to Health.”

“Though the US government has built exemptions for humanitarian imports into its sanction regime, broad US sanctions against Iranian banks, coupled with aggressive rhetoric from US officials, have drastically constrained Iran’s ability to finance such humanitarian imports,” the rights organization added.

Since quitting a 2015 multilateral nuclear deal with Iran, the administration of US President Donald Trump has been running what it calls a “maximum pressure” campaign against Iran, mainly focused on its economy.

While Washington claims the sanctions would not target the flow of medicine and other humanitarian necessities into Iran, banking sanctions are in fact increasing import prices, blocking supply chains, and creating deadly drug shortages in the country.

Iranian companies, even those not blacklisted by the US, are often cold-shouldered by European banks, fearing secondary US sanctions.

ME