Iranian president expresses fear that their coronavirus vaccines Payment might be seized by US

President Hassan Rouhani said Saturday that Washington was demanding Iranian transactions for novel coronavirus vaccines undergo US banks, and expressed fear the cash might be seized.

US President Donald Trump has imposed wave after wave of sanctions on the Islamic republic since 2018, when he unilaterally withdrew from the Iran nuclear deal.

Iran has assets frozen in several countries, including within the US.

“We want to transfer money from a rustic where our money is” to shop for the vaccine and “this country has accepted”, Rouhani said during a gathering of Iran’s coronavirus task force, without identifying the country in question.

In theory, medicines are exempt from the sanctions, but actually , international banks tend to show down transactions involving Iran to avoid being exposed to potential litigation.

The US Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control had initially indicated that “it did not have a problem” with such a transfer of funds, he said.

But “it said later that the cash had to first undergo a US bank before being transferred” for the vaccine purchase, Rouhani said.

In April, the Iranian president said the country had won a legal “victory” over $1.6 billion of its assets that had long been frozen on a US request in Luxembourg.

“Who can trust people like you? you’ve got stolen our money everywhere you found it,” Rouhani said Saturday, addressing the US administration.

The Islamic republic has been battling the center East’s deadliest outbreak of the novel coronavirus since February, with almost 1,195,000 cases and over 54,500 deaths, consistent with official figures.

Health Minister Saeed Namaki said early this month that Iran had “pre-purchased” about 16.8 million vaccine doses “via COVAX”, without specifying which vaccine.

COVAX is a world initiative that aims to make sure equitable access to coronavirus vaccines for all countries.

The vaccine purchase “could be more costly and be delayed, but it’ll certainly happen”, Rouhani said Saturday.

Iran has also involved volunteers for the beginning of clinical trials for its own vaccine, which it began to develop within the spring, the health ministry said.

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