TEHRAN - The Academy of Medical Sciences of Iran has written to the UN to complain about the world’s body failure to push for the lifting of cruel U.S. sanctions at a critical time when Iran is fighting a deadly coronavirus pandemic, Press TV reported on Thursday.

In the letter addressed to UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres, the academy’s President Alireza Marandi criticized the UN and its affiliated organizations for taking “no effective measures” to ease the restrictive U.S. measures, which are hampering Iran’s fight against the fast-spreading disease.

“Following correspondence about the U.S. government’s illegal sanctions against the Islamic Republic of Iran and its direct impact on the health of the Iranian people, unfortunately, so far, the United Nations and other relevant organizations including the World Health Organization, which claim to defend the rights of humanity, have taken no effective measures to lift the cruel sanctions against our dear children, women, men and patients,” Marandi wrote.

Marandi, a former health minister, also lashed out at the Donald Trump administration for turning a deaf ear to international calls demanding sanctions relief and instead imposing even more anti-Iran sanctions.

“Instead, despite the urging of scientists, physicians and even some elected US officials to lift sanctions amid a worldwide Covid-19 disease pandemic, this irrational, ruthless American government has further tightened sanctions against the Iranian people,” he wrote.

In May 2018, Trump unilaterally pulled the U.S. out of the 2015 nuclear deal ratified by the UN Security Council and reinstated sanctions on Iran. The Trump administration not only returned previous sanctions lifted under the Resolution 2231 it also ordered new ones, including a total ban on Iran’s oil export.

The purpose behind the sanctions, which Trump himself has called the “worst ever sanctions in history” under his “maximum pressure” policy toward Iran, are intended to strangulate the Iranian economy and drain the country of foreign currency reserves. 

The Trump administration has threatened to penalize any country that does business with Iran.

“It is certain that history will judge the ineffectiveness and silence of international organizations claiming protection of international law and human rights against such crimes. These institutions have become toothless, if not complicit, and we will undoubtedly see the unraveling of our world order because of this refusal to take action against crass violations of international and humanitarian law by the U.S. regime,” Marandi concluded.

As of Thursday, April 2, the pandemic coronavirus has infected more than 50,000 Iranians and killed about 3,200.

Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif has said the U.S. “economic terrorism” against Iranians has been expanding to “medical terrorism”.

PA/PA