US Blocking Iran’s Purchase of COVID-19 Vaccine: Top Banker

Abdolnasser Hemmati, the Governor of the Central Bank of Iran (CBI), says Iran has tried to purchase COVID-19 vaccine from other countries, but the US sanctions have prevented financial transactions for the sale.

In a post on his Instagram account, Hemmati said while the purchases of the coronavirus vaccine should be made officially through the World Health Organization (WHO), Iran has faced obstacles in every single way that it has tried to make payments and transfer currency for the purchase of vaccine “because of the US government’s inhumane sanctions and the need for permission from OFAC”, the Office of Foreign Assets Control of the US Treasury Department.

“South Korea could not guarantee that the CBI’s fund will not be confiscated by the US government in the course of transaction of money via a dollar U-turn path for humanitarian purchases,” Hemmati added.

He also noted that the International Monetary Fund did not even dare to raise the issue of Iran’s application for a loan under the US pressures and threats, although there was no legal or economic obstacle to granting the humanitarian loan.

Iran, however, is working on other ways for money transactions to buy the vaccine, he added.

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