TEHRAN – Mahmoud Abbassi, the justice minister’s deputy for human rights and foreign affairs, said on Saturday that the U.S. sanctions are a clear violation of human rights and called for formation of a committee to study the repercussion of sanctions on ordinary people.

Such a committee can help counter the sanctions, he said during a press conference.

“We believe that the U.S. sanctions are a clear violation of the human rights… the U.S. has violated the human rights by imposing sanctions in medical area,” he said.

U.S. President Donald Trump withdrew unilaterally from the 2015 nuclear deal, known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action, on May 8 and ordered restoration sanctions against Iran.

Sanctions, planned to go into force on August 6, have already taken tolls on patients, leading to shortage of medicine and medical supplies.

Although it has been claimed that sanctions do not directly target medicine or hospitals, they restrict banking and trade which limits financing for imports of medicine.

In an article on May 15, Lobe Log said President Trump’s reckless decision to withdraw from the nuclear deal has once again left the lives of more than six million Iranian patients with diseases like cancer, hemophilia, and MS hanging in the balance.

On July 18, Iranian Health Minister Qazizadeh Hashemi criticized the self-proclaimed advocates of human rights for their silence toward the reimposition of sanctions, saying sanctions will impede access of Iranian patients to necessary drugs. 

Under the nuclear agreement approved by the UN Security Council, Iran is obliged to put limits on its nuclear activities in exchange for termination of sanctions.

U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo announced in May that the U.S. will apply economic and military pressure against Iran and will impose “the strongest sanctions in history” on the Islamic Republic.

NA/PA