Iranian President Calls on US to Lift Sanctions amid Health Crisis

Iranian President Hassan Rouhani has called on his US counterpart, Donald Trump, to lift economic sanctions as the Islamic Republic struggles to contend with one of the world’s worst outbreaks of coronavirus. Rouhani qualified, however, that Tehran would not accept any humanitarian aid previously offered by the White House. “You have blocked Iran’s oil exports; you have stopped Iran’s banking transactions…. Your offer [to help] is the biggest lie in the history,” he said. Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif also weighed in, tweeting: “U.S. is NOT listening, impeding global fight against #COVID19. The ONLY remedy: DEFY U.S. mass punishment. MORAL & PRAGMATIC imperative.” Tensions between the two countries have been high since President Trump in May 2018 withdrew Washington from a multilateral nuclear deal aimed at barring Tehran from developing nuclear weapons, and re-imposed economic sanctions on the mullah regime. This has resulted in intermittent tit-for-tat exchanges between the US military and forces loyal to Tehran in Iraq. As of Tuesday morning, at least 23,000 Iranians had been infected with the virus, including dozens of high-ranking officials, with health authorities reporting over 1,900 deaths. While Rouhani praised the public for abiding by government restrictions on movement, Iranian police warned that millions of people had defied orders preventing travel during Nowruz, the Persian new year holiday, which started last Friday.