Iran's leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei has banned Covid vaccine coming from the US and the UK as they might be using their innocent citizen as a lab rat.
In a televised speech on Friday, the announcement came with blame over London and Washington that they might be seeking to "contaminate" other countries with their anti-coronavirus solutions.
"Imports of US and British vaccines into the country are forbidden ... They’re completely untrustworthy. It’s not unlikely they would want to contaminate other nations," Khamenei said on the announcement.
An increasing number of Coronavirus is the solid proof that medical products should not be trusted, Khamenei stated.
“If the Americans were able to produce a vaccine, they would not have such a coronavirus fiasco in their own country,” he added.
In recent months, Moderna and Pfizer from the US and AstraZeneca from the UK have launched their respective coronavirus vaccine. Vaccination campaigns have already started in various states. Red Cross announced that Iran was set to receive a batch of 150,000 doses of Pfizer jab, though the timeframe of when the vaccine would arrive was not given.
Not only the US and UK, but Khamenei also doesn't trust French products and announced that Iran won't be receiving any French products if they become available either.
“Given our experience with France’s HIV-tainted blood supplies, French vaccines aren’t trustworthy either,” Khamenei said, referring to the major early-1990s scandal.
Iran is likely to receive Russian Vaccine Sputnik V. Iran is also in the process of developing its own vaccine and the first-stage trial have already begun.
Due to sanctions imposed over Tehran by Washington, Tehran has lost its full right to import vaccine from abroad, especially from the West. However, other essential medical goods are not sanctioned. The ability of Iran to make a foreign transaction has also been limited.
Khamenei called Washington to stop its sanction and lift up the restriction. US still has an option to return to the landmark nuclear deal.
Khamenei also touched upon the sanctions issue, again calling upon Washington to stop its hostile policies and urging it to lift the restrictions. Washington walked away from the landmark nuclear deal back in 2018 which he responded that the US still had an option to return back.
“We are not insisting nor in a hurry for the US to return to the deal,” Khamenei stated. “But what is logical is our demand for the lifting of sanctions. These brutal sanctions must be lifted immediately.”
