by Xinhua writer Gao Wencheng

TEHRAN, April 9 (Xinhua) -- Iran's COVID-19 cases exceeded 2 million on Thursday, with a new daily infection record of over 22,000 cases.

Despite the surging cases in Iran, Washington continued its maximum-pressure drive against Tehran, which was dragged by the dual challenges of the coronavirus outbreak and U.S. sanctions.

DISRUPTION TO VIRUS BATTLE

Iranian President Hassan Rouhani on Thursday accused the United States of blocking Iran's access to 10 million doses of COVID-19 vaccine by pressuring relevant suppliers.

The United States "put pressure on the companies that supply parts of the vaccine from abroad, and blocked 10 million doses of the vaccine that we were supposed to import into the country," he noted.

During the COVID-19 pandemic, the "rebellious" and "lawless" U.S. government has hampered Iran's efforts to buy necessary medicines and vaccines, Rouhani said.

Last month, the president said the inhumane U.S. sanctions against Iran have targeted the lives and health of the Iranian people.

Similarly, Javaid Rehman, UN special rapporteur on the situation of human rights in Iran said in a report released earlier this year that since the start of the COVID-19 outbreak in Iran, "the government has faced significant difficulties in containing the virus, in part due to the weakening of the national healthcare system and the wider economy by the cumulative effect of sanctions imposed by the United States since 2018."

Especially, sanctions limited the country's access to its foreign currency reserves to purchase medical supplies and the raw materials needed to produce supplies locally, Rehman said.

"This disruption has led to issues of scarcity and affordability, affecting the right to health," he added.

CRUEL CONSEQUENCES

According to the report by Rehman, healthcare workers in Iran "had been working extra shifts and with limited protective equipment."

As of November 2020, more than 300 doctors, nurses and healthcare workers had died of COVID-19, with many hospitals reaching maximum capacity, it said.

Rehman also noted that as the U.S. sanctions persist, "medication produced overseas required for the treatment of life-threatening or rare conditions remain scarce."

Approximately 4.5 million diabetic patients in Iran, 600,000 of whom need daily shots, are reportedly affected by insulin shortages.

In Iran, the recent surge of the COVID-19 cases resulted from travels and visits during the Iranian New Year holiday. Yet, amid the sanctions, many Iranians have to make a tough choice between taking the health risk or suffering from poverty.

Before the holiday, Ahmad, the owner of a handicrafts shop in the northern town of Royan, told Xinhua that he felt happy that he could receive tourists and earn money during holidays, even though he remembered the painful impact of last year's New Year period amid COVID-19.

As for why the authorities had not imposed more strict limitations on people's movements during the holiday, analysts said that the country's tourism sector certainly would benefit from an impulse during the Iranian New Year season, after suffering the combined effect of the pandemic and U.S. sanctions for more than one year.

Su Xin, a Chinese expert on Iran, told Xinhua that sanctions are not the only reason for the recent resurgence in cases and deaths in Iran, warning of their far-reaching and long-lasting consequence on Iranian society.

CALL FOR LIFTING SANCTIONS

The Joint Commission of the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), known as the Iran nuclear deal, resumed talks in Vienna again on Friday, with the lifting of sanctions on Iran and nuclear implementation measures topping the agenda.

During their previous talks held on Tuesday also in the Austrian capital, Iranian Deputy Foreign Minister Abbas Araqchi, also the head of the Iranian delegation, stressed that the removal of the U.S. sanctions is the first and most necessary move to revive the JCPOA.

"The Islamic Republic of Iran is fully prepared to stop its remedial nuclear measures and return to the full implementation of the JCPOA immediately after it verifies the removal of sanctions," he added.

Iran gradually stopped implementing parts of its JCPOA commitments from May 2019, one year after the administration of former U.S. President Donald Trump unilaterally abandoned the agreement and re-imposed sanctions on Iran.

The U.S. State Department noted recently that Washington is prepared to lift those sanctions inconsistent with the nuclear deal.

"We are prepared to take the steps necessary to return to compliance with the JCPOA, including by lifting sanctions that are inconsistent with the JCPOA," State Department spokesman Ned Price said on Wednesday.

Yet, Iran has repeatedly rejected step-by-step plans to revive the 2015 agreement and asked the United States to first lift all the sanctions imposed on Iran.

"They (Americans) have left the JCPOA, and they have imposed sanctions. So obviously if they want to come back, they will have to lift all those sanctions, all together, in one step," Araqchi told Iranian news network Press TV after the first round of the Vienna talks on Tuesday. Enditem

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