After emerging in Wuhan, China last December, the coronavirus (sometimes called COVID-19) has spread to at least 169 countries and regions around the globe, claiming over 16,500 lives as of Tuesday, while confirmed cases nearing 384,000. A total of 122 people in Iran have died of coronavirus over the last 24 hours, pushing the death toll up to 1,934, said an Iranian health official on Tuesday. According to Iranian state TV, Health Ministry spokesperson Kianoush Jahanpour 1,762 new virus cases. In Iran, where most Middle Eastern coronavirus cases have originated, official statistics report that one citizen is dying from the virus every 10 minutes, with research warning that up to 3.5 million Iranians could die.
Despite so many deaths in Iran, the US and Iran are blaming each other for the spread of covid-19. According to the US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, the Iranian authorities had contributed to the spread of the virus: by lying about the true scale of Iran’s coronavirus crisis, by continuing flights to China as covid-19 was spreading, by stealing money intended for medical supplies and by hoarding medical equipment such as masks and gloves to sell on the black market. Whereas, according to the Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammed Javad Zarif the United States is “impeding” the global fight to contain the spreading covid-19 disease by sustaining its sanctions. The fight over responsibility for the coronavirus’s spread came as Iran and America both battle escalating rates of infection among their populations. Over the weekend, the United States overtook Iran and other nations to become the country with the third-largest number of confirmed coronavirus cases in the world, with more than 40,000 reported as of Monday.
According to the Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif, Iran’s healthcare has been compromised due to the sanctions imposed by the US. Mr Zarif says they have “drained Iran’s economic resources.” While the US has denied that its sanctions are restricting Iran’s ability to import medical supplies, pointing to an exemption for humanitarian goods. But Iran says companies find it difficult to process payments with banks unwilling to risk breaking the US rules and risk sanctions themselves. The country’s Supreme Leader, Ayatollah Ali, Khamenei, acknowledged that the US had offered to help Iran fight the virus, but added that “experience shows the US can’t be trusted.”The government is now approaching the International Monetary Fund (IMF) for emergency assistance amounting to $5bn.
In a nutshell, Iran is the most affected state with coronavirus in Middle East hence it should accept medical help from any state in the world because it is the time to protect its people from the deadly virus. The number of new daily cases in Iran is still increasing. Nevertheless, the US is not looking interested to eliminate economic restrictions against Iran If, it does not lift it should reduce economic sanctions. Since Iran is facing hurdles to import medical equipment to cope with covid-19 owing to these prohibitions. Pakistan is also requesting to the US to lift economic ban against Iran on humanitarian grounds. Unfortunately, Pakistan is not economically strong like China and Russia to help Iran in medical equipment and medicine. Consequently, the world big powers like Russia, China, Japan and UK should send food, medicine, medical equipment and doctors to Iran on immediate basis. They should enhance their help for human security in Iran. Russia has provided Iran with tens of thousands of testing kits for covid-19 but it should increase medical help for Iran.
