As JCPOA supporter, Sweden expected to sell Iran medicine needed for EB patients: Zarif

While welcoming the six new members, including Sweden, in a non-dollar trade mechanism aimed to circumvent US sanctions against Iran, Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif has criticized Stockholm for yielding to Washington’s bullying and stopping to sell Tehran pharmaceutical products needed to treat epidermolysis bullosa (EB) patients.

Speaking on the sidelines of a cabinet meeting on Wednesday, Zarif welcomed as a “positive move” the joining of Belgium, Denmark, Finland, the Netherlands, Norway, and Sweden as new shareholders in the Instrument in Support of Trade Exchanges (INSTEX).

But as already stressed, “We do not expect that one of the pharmaceutical companies of a country claiming to be supporting the JCPOA (the 2015 nuclear deal, known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action), refrains from selling rare medicine to Iran,” Zarif said.

Responding to a question about bans on the sale of medicine needed for Iranian patients suffering from EB, Zarif said not every country produces dressings needed for EB kids and few companies do that.

Zarif: Instead of ‘paper promises’, Europe must fulfill its human duty toward Iranians

Iran

Zarif said a Swedish company sold Iran the products but now refuses to do so under pressure from the US sanctions and bullying.

“That you want to join INSTEX is very good but as the Americans themselves claim that medical and humanitarian products are not under sanctions, you [are expected] to not impose [the bans on them],” he added.

Last year, President Donald Trump unilaterally pulled the US out of the JCPOA, and unleashed the “toughest ever” sanctions against Tehran.

Since Washington’s withdrawal from the JCPAO, the European parties to the deal -- Britain, France, and Germany -- have pledged to implement the agreement and guarantee trade with Iran in the face of the US sanctions.

US sanctions on Iran killing children with EB: NGO

Iranian children suffering from a rare skin condition known as EB are losing their lives as a result of US economic sanctions, says an NGO.

The EU3 announced the establishment of INSTEX, a non-dollar trade mechanism with Iran, in January. The apparatus is meant to circumvent the sanctions that the United States began re-imposing against Iran last year after leaving the JCPOA reached between the Islamic Republic and the trio, Russia, and China.

Washington claims the sanctions target the government, but ordinary Iranians bear the brunt of the bans.

Last November, the Islamic Republic of Iran Medical Council (IRIMC) said illegal economic sanctions have negatively impacted the country’s health sector.

The trade of humanitarian goods, such as food, medicine and medical devices, is on paper allowed by the US, though European companies still refuse to do business with Iran fearing secondary American sanctions.

Since the reimposition of sanctions, Swedish medical products firm Molnlycke Health Care has stopped delivering Mepilex dressings, which are trusted around the world to treat a wide range of chronic and acute wounds, including in EB patients, Iranian media reports say.

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