TEHRAN - Mohsen Pakaeen, the former Iranian ambassador to Azerbaijan, has said that the coronavirus pandemic is a good opportunity to boost multilateralism.

“The current situation provides a good opportunity for the countries which oppose the United States’ policies, which are against the “international law and principles”, to get united against this country’s unilateralism and boost multilateralism through collective action,” he told ISNA in an interview published on Sunday.

He said that the U.S. refuses to remove anti-Iran sanctions in the current situation because of its animosity towards the Islamic Revolution and the Iranians.

Despite international calls, the Trump administration is refusing to lift or at least suspend illegal sanctions against Iran, especially as the country is one of the countries hit hardest by the deadly coronavirus. 

As of Sunday, April 5, the COVID-19 has infected over 58,000 Iranians and killed around 3,600.

“Right to enjoy health is a fundamental international right and no country should violate it,” the former ambassador noted.

Iran’s Ambassador to Russia, Kazem Jalali, said on Friday that the U.S. sanctions will lead to a “humanitarian catastrophe” in the world.

In a tweet in Russian language, Jalali added that today, the global community stood on one side and the U.S. on the other, according to IRNA.

U.S. foreign policy has even mocked role of the United Nations in solving global problems, Iran’s top diplomat to Russia added.

In a tweet on March 29, Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif urged the international community to stop supporting U.S. “war crimes” against Iran, urging the world to “stop obeying immoral and illegal sanctions” against Iranians.

He said that the U.S. “economic terrorism” on Iran has been expanding to the new level of “medical terrorism” which is not even permissible on the battlefield.

“This even ‘exceeds what would be permissible on the battlefield,” he noted.

The Trump administration has slapped the harshest ever sanctions in history against Iran. It has introduced a total ban on Iran’s oil export with the aim of strangulating the Iranian economy.

The Academy of Medical Sciences of Iran has written to the UN to complain about the world’s body failure to push for the lifting of cruel U.S. sanctions at a critical time when Iran is fighting a deadly coronavirus pandemic, Press TV reported on Thursday.

In the 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,” Marandi wrote.

Marandi, a former health minister, also lashed out at the Donald Trump administration for turning a deaf ear to international calls demanding sanctions relief and instead imposing even more anti-Iran sanctions.

NA/PA