Hilal Elver, UN Special Rapporteur on the Right to Food. photo by Reuters

A UN human rights expert called for the immediate lifting of sanctions against Iran to ensure that food supplies reach hungry populations during the coronavirus pandemic.

Iran PressAmerica: "The continued imposition of crippling economic sanctions on Syria, Venezuela, Iran, Cuba, and, to a lesser degree, Zimbabwe, to name the most prominent instances, severely undermines the ordinary citizens' fundamental right to sufficient and adequate food," said Hilal Elver, UN Special Rapporteur on the Right to Food on Tuesday.

Elver, an independent expert, said that it was a matter of 'humanitarian and practical urgency' to lift unilateral economic sanctions immediately.

The US Senator Bernie Sanders also in his tweet on 31 March said that US sanctions are obstructing medicine and aid from getting in, while the Coronavirus has caused suffering and death to Iranians. 

In late December 2019, Chinese authorities notified WHO about an outbreak of previously unknown pneumonia in the city of Wuhan, central China. On March 11, WHO officially characterized the situation with the novel coronavirus (COVID-19) as a pandemic.

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