Speaking at a Sunday session of the Coronavirus Fight National Headquarters, President Rouhani highlighted the far-reaching impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic on the international politics, trade, economy and relations.
“While the US sanctions were being condemned with a soft tone one day, today the US sanctions are being condemned with a firm tone across the world as an inhumane and wrong measure being taken in such conditions,” the president noted.
“The coronavirus (outbreak) is an adventure that has changed the entire world, and this is really a wonder of the creation that a tiny invisible creature can change everything,” he added.
President Rouhani underlined that nothing will remain the same in the post-coronavirus era, saying the international politics, trade exchanges, and investment will all change in the post-coronavirus period.
“You can see now that in a world where some claimed that the only way for life is the big regional and international alliances, they have opted for nationalism. They are leaving the alliances. The alliances are becoming loose,” President Rouhani stated.
Pointing to the fierce competition between the governments for the medical supplies after the outbreak of the coronavirus pandemic, the Iranian president said, “Even two countries that are apparently friends are snatching masks away from each other in the air.”
“No country gave masks to the other countries when it needed them. No country gave its bordering neighbor ventilators as long as it needed them. No country gave its (hospital) beds to its neighbors. Even in the European Union, we saw that they were near each other, but everybody cared only about themselves,” President Rouhani noted.
He finally explained that the pandemic has resulted in a revival of nationalism, adding, “The unions were weakened. The global policies were clearly brought into question.”
