After Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei stated publicly that Iran would ban any Western vaccine for the coronavirus, a number of officials have come to his defense over the decision.

On Jan. 8, Khamenei said he had already informed Iranian officials that vaccines from the United States and the United Kingdom have been banned. He said he has “no confidence” in the vaccines produced in those countries and claimed that if they were so effective the countries would not be experiencing such a difficult time with the virus. Khamenei also referenced a bitter experience for Iran when they imported blood from France that was tainted with HIV, while claiming that Western vaccines are not reliable.

When Khamenei’s Twitter account tweeted these statements, Twitter quickly took action. Twitter said the tweet was in violation of its policies against misinformation about the coronavirus. They locked the account until the account holder removed the tweet. Khamenei’s office and not himself likely operates the Twitter account.

Iran’s Red Crescent had said that a sponsor in the United States was going to send 150,000 doses of the Pfizer vaccine to Iran. This number was later reduced to 15,000, though the reason for the discrepancy was never explained.