He said the Iranian nation suffered severe hardships since the outbreak of the coronavirus pandemic over the past year since all the world nations were free to use their own money for medical equipment, food, medicine and vaccine except for the Islamic Republic of Iran, which was deprived of access to its own financial resources due to illegal and cruel US sanctions.
“Iran was the only country that was fighting with sanctions parallel with the coronavirus… We faced many problems for procuring and paying for COVID-19 vaccines,” Rouhani said on Sunday during a session of the Coronavirus Prevention and Combat Headquarters.
However, the president said, the country has been tackling the pandemic well and has also turned it into an opportunity to develop several economic infrastructures.
Rouhani called on people to continue observing the health protocols to prevent the fourth wave of the virus’s spread.
Iran has been contending with the deadliest pandemic the world has seen in many decades amid illegal US sanctions, which have been hampering its access to vaccines, medicine, and medical equipment in the global market.
Besides developing its own vaccines at home, Iran has imported the Sputnik V vaccine from Russia and plans its joint production with Moscow.
Iran has also purchased 16.8 million doses of COVID-19 vaccines from COVAX, a multi-agency group dedicated to assuring fair access to vaccines for low- and middle-income countries.
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