WASHINGTON, APRIL 09, 2020
The U.S. has no objection to Europe sending medical supplies to Iran, which has been badly hit by the deadly coronavirus, President Donald Trump has said.
The Trump administration has imposed one of the toughest economic sanctions on Iran alleging that it is going ahead with its nuclear ambition and it is supporting terrorist organisations to destabilise the Middle east.
“They (Europeans) are sending medical goods to Iran. That doesn’t bother me,” Mr. Trump told reporters during a White House news conference.
Iran has become one of the world’s coronavirus epicenters, with more than 60,000 people infected and over 3,800 deaths.
Mr. Trump was responding to a question on the call made by French President Emanuel Macron to his Iranian counterpart that Europe has started to ship the medical goods to Iran.
“Medical good?… That doesn’t bother me,” Mr. Trump said.
Earlier, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo told reporters that the U.S. has offered humanitarian assistance to Iran.
“I regret that they chose not to take that. I’ve heard people talking about sanctions,” he said.
“The world should note there are no sanctions that prevent humanitarian assistance, pharmaceutical medical supplies, pharmaceuticals from going to Iran. We offered American assistance; we try to help other countries get assistance in there as well. We had some ability to do that,” Mr. Pompeo said.
On March 30, the UK, Germany and France circumvented Iran sanctions by using Instrument in Support of Trade Exchanges for the first time to send medical goods to Iran in response to the COVID-19 pandemic.
Iran has the sixth highest number of fatalities after Italy, Spain, the U.S., France and the UK.
In March, Iran became the first major COVID-19 hotspot outside Asia. It has now suffered more deaths than China, where the outbreak originated. ( PTI )
