Iran: Amnesty must report hardships of Iranians under illegal sanctions

Iran’s mission to the European Union has called on Amnesty International to compile a report about the harmful impact of illegal American sanctions on the livelihoods of Iranians, especially at a time when the country is grappling with a deadly coronavirus outbreak.

According to reports, in a chain of tweets on Friday, Iran’s Embassy in Belgium ­— which hosts the EU’s headquarters — drew attention to the difficulties that over 80 million Iranians have been facing under America’s unilateral sanctions, saying those problems have been compounded by the spread of COVID-19, the disease caused by the virus.

Along with one of the tweets, the diplomatic mission posted a recent Amnesty report on “deliberately divisive and destructive policies that have perpetuated inequality, discrimination and oppression and paved the way for the devastation wrought by COVID-19.”

The mission said “as Agnès Callamard correctly observed in an Amnesty report ‘the pandemic has cast a harsh light on the world’s inability to cooperate effectively in times of dire global need.”

Callamard serves as the Secretary-General of the London-based human rights group. Before her new post, she served as the Special Rapporteur on extrajudicial, summary, or arbitrary executions appointed by the United Nations Human Rights Council.

“During the past year Iranian people have been grappling with a fast-spreading virus while due to illegal US sanctions their assets have been frozen in foreign banks, effectively cutting them off from global banking channels to pay for the necessary medical supplies,” the mission added.

The US, it added, even blocked the International Monetary Fund (IMF) to grant Iran a load that it needed to “strengthen its economy to better provide for the people and tend to their health and medical needs.”

“The report rightly describes health workers as the heroes of 2020. Health workers endured the excruciating pressure of US illegal sanctions while shouldering the burden of fighting the pandemic. Casualties among Iran's health workers is among the highest in the world,” the Embassy added.

“Amnesty International is hereby called upon to write a report on the ruinous impact of US illegal sanction on the lives of more than 80 million Iranians who have to win their bread under the pressure of unilateral sanctions and the threat of a virus,” the mission said.

SS