As much of the world is slowly moving close to an end to COVID-19 with either producing or ordering doses of coronavirus vaccines, Iranians seem to have a longer way ahead before making it to the other side of the bridge.  

From the very onset of the pandemic back in late February, officials in Tehran have denounced US “medical terrorism,” a term they apply to a series of sanctions on medical supplies and pharmaceuticals. They argue that through such measures or pressure on other countries, Washington is hampering the fight against the pandemic in the Islamic Republic. The United States, on the other hand, says Iran’s medical sector has been exempted from sanctions.

In the latest, however, the governor of Iran’s Central Bank Abdolnaser Hemmati described those assertions as “a lie” in an Instagram post that he said was meant “to be recorded in history.” The top banker lamented the failure of all channels to transfer payments to the World Health Organization to order vaccine doses.

This was echoed by Kianoush Jahanpour, the spokesman for Iran’s Food and Drug Administration, who announced plans to purchase 21 million doses from four countries. “While deals have been made for pre-orders, sanctions are casting a shadow over the banking transactions,” Jahanpour said. The conservative daily Khorasan referred to those sanctions as a “coronavirus crime” that has revealed the true nature of the US “humanitarian catchphrases.”