Iran rights council: US criminal sanctions target Iranians’ lives, health

Iran’s top human rights council has strongly condemned recent US sanctions on Iranian financial system and banks, noting that by curtailing the country’s access to medicine and other humanitarian equipment, Washington’s sanctions are taking direct aim at Iranian people’s lives and health.

“Enforcement and intensification of unjust, illegal and inhuman sanctions by the US regime and their implementation by certain European countries ... have not only caused problems for Iran’s normal economic, financial and banking relations [with other countries], but also made purchase of drugs, diagnostic kits, and laboratory equipment practically impossible amid difficult conditions caused by the coronavirus pandemic,” Iranian Judiciary’s High Council for Human Rights said in a statement on Sunday.

On Thursday, the United States targeted Iran’s financial sector by imposing sanctions on 18 Iranian banks with the Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin claiming that the US sanctions would "stop illicit access to US dollars."

The Trump administration has claimed humanitarian goods are exempt from its sanction, but a web of sanctions tied around Iran over years has made foreign banks and companies extremely wary of engaging in any trade with the country.

Iran patients feel brunt of US sanctions with their skin

A group of patients in Iran feel the excruciating pain of inhuman US sanctions literally with their skin.

Since the re-imposition 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.

According to Bloomberg, the new measures could sharply hinder Iran’s ability to secure supplies of food and medicine at a time the country struggles to contain a resurgence of the coronavirus outbreak.

US targets Iran's financial sector, imposes sanctions on 18 banks

The United States has targeted Iran’s financial sector by imposing sanctions on 18 Iranian banks, in defiance of Europe’s humanitarian objections.

“The US regime had already embarked on committing ‘crime against humanity’ through its unilateral withdrawal from the JCPOA (Iran’s nuclear deal with world powers) and imposing toughest sanctions against the Iranian nation,” the rights council said.

It added, “Most recently, through imposition of illegal sanctions on Iran’s semi-public and private banks with the goal of creating obstacles on the way of [the country’s] access to food and medicine and humanitarian equipment, [the US] has opened a new chapter in its records of crimes against humanity while demonstrating the acme of its vile nature and hostility toward the Iranian nation.”

“Imposing sanctions on these banks, which provided remarkable services for obtaining humanitarian aid as well as procurement of food and medicine, has clearly encroached on [the Iranian] people’s right to medicine and food, which is another instance of violation of human rights and international law [by the US regime],” Iran’s top rights body said.

Iran’s President Hassan Rouhani said on Friday that the new sanctions imposed by the United States on the Iranian banking sector amount to an effort of a ‘terrorist, cruel and inhumane’ nature aimed at putting major obstacles to fund transfers for the purchase of medicine and food amid the coronavirus pandemic.

New US sanctions on Iran ‘terrorist, cruel’ effort to prevent medicine, food purchases amid COVID-19: Rouhani

Washington, the Iranian president said, acts in line with its political objectives and propagating efforts which have domestic purposes.

“Everyone is witnessing that Washington’s move is in full violation of international law; and in these times of the coronavirus pandemic, the White House’s attitude is completely against humanity; and the so-called advocates of human rights should condemn it globally,” Rouhani said in a phone call with Governor of the Central Bank of Iran (CBI) Abdolnaser Hemmati.

Read more:

• US sanctions on Iran ‘crimes against humanity’: Envoy
• Trump lured by Bibi-Firsters into inhumane targeting of ordinary Iranians: Foreign Ministry
• US pressure campaign against Iran ‘example of state terrorism’: Envoy to UN
• Zarif reacts to US sanctions: Culprits blocking our money will face justice

Iran’s High Council for Human Rights further said despite US claims that humanitarian affairs are not covered by sanctions, blocking financial transactions between Iran and the world has practically obstructed importation of humanitarian articles and drugs used to treat people with serious diseases.

“These are only a few examples of how the US regime’s brutal and criminal sanctions have affected the Iranian nation’s basic and inviolable rights. As attested to by the American officials’ remarks, measures taken by the lawbreaking regime of America have clearly taken aim at the health and lives of [the Iranian] people and are considered 'crime against humanity',” the council said.

Enemy’s sanctions aim to block Iran exports: Defense minister

Iran’s defense minister says the latest round of US sanctions is aimed at blocking the country’s exports but will fail to have any effect.

It urged all freedom-thinking countries and nations across the world, particularly Western countries and human rights bodies, to condemn the latest "criminal act" by the US administration in imposing sanctions on 18 Iranian banks. The council concluded its statement by calling on those states and nations to use their utmost capacity to hold to account the culprits behind such brutal sanctions, compensate for the damage inflicted on the Iranian nation and provide guarantees that such moves are not repeated.

Iran: Medical ban on kids inconsistent with West’s human rights posture

A senior Iranian rights official slams the Western states for pretending to be advocates of human rights while blocking Tehran’s imports medicine meant for children and patients.

A senior official with the Iranian Judiciary said on October 5 that the body is planning to prosecute 46 American natural and legal persons involved in the imposition of unjust sanctions on the Islamic Republic, which among other things, have prevented the country from importing medications necessary to treat patients with serious diseases.

Iran to prosecute 46 US officials for imposing medical bans on country: Deputy Judiciary chief

A senior Iranian Judiciary official says the country is planning to prosecute 46 American natural and legal persons involved over unjust medical sanctions.

The head of the Iranian Judiciary’s High Council for Human Rights, Ali Baqeri-Kani, said, “We are using all legal means, at domestic and international levels, to counteract these crimes and today, I announce that the names of 46 American natural and legal persons, who have been one way or another involved in imposing unjust and inhumane sanctions on the Iranian nation, have been given to Tehran prosecutor’s office” to prosecute them in accordance with a law on countering terrorist measures of the United States.

An Iranian NGO has said that Iranian children suffering from a rare skin condition known as EB are losing their lives as US economic sanctions hamper the flow of vital medical products.

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.

That is because Swedish medical companies which provided protective bandages for such patients have halted supplies due to the restrictions, Hamid Reza Hashemi-Golpayegani, the head of the NGO that helps such patients, said.

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