TEHRAN – The Government of Qatar has dispatched the first batch of sanitary and medical items to Iran to help the neighboring country fight the coronavirus.

The consignment, weighing more than 5.5 tons, was delivered at Tehran’s Imam Khomeini International Airport on Friday night, IRNA reported.

President Hassan Rouhani, in a phone conversation with emir of Qatar Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani on February 29, called on the entire nations worldwide to enhance cooperation to overcome the coronavirus outbreak. 

“Today, outbreak of the coronavirus has turned into a global problem, therefore, the entire nations and governments around the world should stay with each other to overcome the epidemic disease as soon as possible,” Rouhani underscored in his phone call. 

He further pointed to traffic of passengers between the two countries and said, “A special health protocol should be drafted based on which we can normalize flights between the two countries.”

The Qatari emir, for his part, said, “The Qatari government and people are with the Iranian nation and government. We do not withhold any cooperation and assistance in line with countering the coronavirus.”

In a letter to UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres on Thursday, Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif denounced the United States’ sanctions as a major obstacle to Iran’s battle against the spread of the novel coronavirus in the country.

In his letter Zarif urged an end to such and “illegal” sanctions. Zarif said despite Iran’s scientific capabilities and the commitment that the country’s health system has shown to the fight against the coronavirus outbreak, the U.S. sanctions on legal trade and the preconditions that the United States’ authorities have set recently so as to prevent the sale of medicine, medical equipment and humanitarian supplies have posed serious obstacles to the efforts to control the COVID-19 outbreak in Iran.

The number of coronavirus cases in the country rose to 12,729 on Saturday, with 4,339 recovered and 611 dead.

MG