US ban on medicine supply to Iran ‘historic crime’: Businessman
A senior Iranian businessman says US sanctions are definitely affecting Iran’s access to medicine supplies as he insists the ban will go down in history as “a historic crime”.
Sharif Nezam Mafi, a senior businessman with trade activities in Switzerland, said on Saturday that international legal entities have a responsibility to prosecute those who through their decisions and actions in recent years have threatened the access of Iranian cancer patients to special drugs.
Nezam Mafi said the US has wrongfully claimed over the years that its sanctions on Iran do not cover supply of humanitarian goods like food and medicine.
“Anyone who is saying or claiming that medicine is not sanctioned is lying because many of foreign banks are not willing to work with pharmaceutical companies and this is effectively a sanction on medicine,” he told ILNA news agency.
The businessman said only a couple of Swiss companies have managed to withstand the pressure of sanctions on Iran and have continued to work with the country since 2018 when Washington imposed its sanctions on Tehran.
Nezam Mafi said European pharmaceutical companies have also been reluctant to engage in medicine trade with Iran fearing the repercussions of US sanctions.
Iranian authorities have repeatedly blamed US sanctions for a shortage of medicines that treat special diseases such as cancer and epilepsy.
Health experts have warned that the harm caused by US sanctions on Iran’s access to medicine supplies may get worse in future.
That comes as the Iranian government has tried to circumvent the sanctions and import the drugs from suppliers that normally charge exorbitant prices.
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