First Transaction Shows Preposterous EU Trade Vehicle

Date: 04 April 2020 - 00:05

News ID: ۷۷۲۷۰

BERLIN/TEHRAN (Dispatches) – A group of Iranian university lecturers has called for the prosecution of top U.S. and European officials for crimes against humanity.
In a letter to the United Nations chief, the heads of the UN General Assembly, and the UN human rights council on Tuesday, the academics called for the trial of U.S. President Donald Trump and his predecessor, Barack Obama, and their cabinet ministers among others.
The group blasted U.S. sanctions on Iran as a "blatant violation of the international law,” arguing that the restrictions deprived Iranians of medicines and protective equipment they need to fight the deadly virus outbreak.
The Iranian university lecturers said the bans have posed serious risks to chronic patients in the country and have led to the death of many others. The letter also blamed some European countries for collaborating with the U.S. and following in Washington’s footsteps in imposing illegal sanctions on Tehran.
The letter came on the day France, Germany and Britain were reported to have exported medical goods to Iran in the first transaction conducted under a trade mechanism set up after the U.S. withdrawal from a 2015 nuclear deal.
The German Foreign Ministry said the medical goods were now in Iran and added that the Instex trade mechanism and its Iranian counterpart would now work on more transactions and on enhancing the system.
The shipment is a consignment of medical goods from a European exporter, a ministry source said, adding they could not give details on the nature of the shipment due to contractual confidentiality clauses.
The European trade vehicle was conceived as a way to help match Iranian oil and gas exports against purchases of EU goods. However, those expections have been toned down, with diplomats saying that, realistically, it will be used only for smaller trade, for example of medicine and food.
The Academy of Medical Sciences of Iran wrote to the UN on Wednesday to complain about the world’s body failure to push for the lifting of cruel U.S. sanctions at a critical time when the Islamic Republic is fighting a deadly coronavirus pandemic.
In a letter addressed to UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres, the Academy’s President Alireza Marandi criticized the UN and its affiliated organizations for taking "no effective measures” to ease the restrictive U.S. measures, which are hampering Iran’s fight against the fast-spreading disease.
"Following correspondence about the U.S. government’s illegal sanctions against the Islamic Republic of Iran and its direct impact on the health of the Iranian people, unfortunately, so far, the United Nations and other relevant organizations including the World Health Organization, which claim to defend the rights of humanity, have taken no effective measures to lift the cruel sanctions against our dear children, women, men and patients,” he wrote.