Iran Press/ Iran news: "Though the US government has built exemptions for humanitarian imports into its sanction regime, broad US sanctions against Iranian banks, coupled with aggressive rhetoric from US officials, have drastically constrained Iran’s ability to finance such humanitarian imports.," said the report.
Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif has lashed out at US trade sanctions on medicine and humanitarian imports saying they are tantamount to economic terrorism.
Dubbed "Maximum Pressure", the HRW report referred to US sanctions prior to the 2015 nuclear agreement and their re-imposition in 2018 when Washington unilaterally stepped out of the multi-lateral agreement and announced a self-declared policy of "maximum pressure" while Iran was committed to its obligations under the nuclear deal.
The rights group also reported of "documented shortage" of critical drugs saying "The consequences of redoubled US sanctions, whether intentional or not, pose a serious threat to Iranians’ right to health and access to essential medicines" as it "has almost certainly contributed to documented shortages—ranging from a lack of critical drugs for epilepsy patients to limited chemotherapy medications for Iranians with cancer."
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