Coronavirus kills 138 more in Iran, toll mounts to 3,036
Infections rise to 47,593; ‘we had 2,987 new cases in the past 24 hours and 15,473 people have recovered,’ says ministry; US has lost opportunity to lift sanctions: Rouhani; floods leave 21 dead
Iran’s death toll from the new coronavirus has reached 3,036, with 138 deaths in the past 24 hours, Health Ministry spokesman Kianush Jahanpur told state TV on Wednesday, adding that the country had 47,593 infected cases.
“We had 2,987 new cases of infected people in the past 24 hours and 15,473 people have recovered from the disease,” Jahanpur said.
Separately, flooding caused by heavy rainfall has left 21 people dead and one missing, an emergency services spokesman said on Wednesday.
Mojtaba Khaledi told Iran’s ISNA news agency that 22 people had also been injured, with most of the casualties in southern or central provinces.
He said 11 people had died in Fars province, three each in Hormozgan and Qom, two in Sistan and Baluchistan province, and one each in Bushehr and Khuzestan.
Khaledi said one person was still missing in Hormozgan on the Gulf coast.
Flooding last week killed 12 people, and Khaledi warned of more heavy rain to come.
Iran’s President Hassan Rouhani said on Wednesday that, with the advent of the coronavirus, the United States had missed a historic opportunity to lift sanctions on his country, though the penalties had not hampered its fight against the infection.
On Tuesday, US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo raised the possibility that Washington might consider easing sanctions on Iran and other nations to help fight the epidemic, but gave no concrete sign it plans to do so.
“The United States lost the best opportunity to lift sanctions,” Hassan Rouhani said in a televised cabinet meeting.
“It was a great opportunity for Americans to apologise and to lift the unjust and unfair sanctions on Iran.”
“Americans could have used this opportunity and told the Iranian nation that they are not against them,” Rouhani said. “Their hostility (towards Iranians) is obvious.”
Although Iranian authorities have said U. sanctions had hindered its efforts to curb the outbreak, Rouhani said, “the sanctions have failed to hamper our efforts to fight against the coronavirus outbreak.”
“We are almost self-sufficient in producing all necessary equipment to fight the coronavirus. We have been much more successful than many other countries in the fight against this disease,” Rouhani said.
Pompeo’s comments reflected a shift in tone by the US State Department, which has come under withering criticism for its hard line toward sanctions relief even in the face of a call by the UN secretary-general to ease US economic penalties.
Pompeo stressed that humanitarian supplies are exempt from sanctions Washington reimposed on Tehran after US President Donald Trump abandoned Iran’s 2015 multilateral deal to limit its nuclear programme.
However, broader US sanctions deter many firms from humanitarian trade with Iran, one of the nations hardest hit by the coronavirus epidemic.
Asked if there might come a point at which Washington might reevaluate its stance on easing sanctions, Pompeo told reporters: “We evaluate all of our policies constantly, so the answer is — would we ever rethink? — Of course.”
Asked about such relief on March 20, Pompeo simply said US sanctions do not apply to medical and other humanitarian goods.
Washington is pursuing a “maximum pressure” policy to try to force Tehran to curb its nuclear, missile and regional activities.
Jon Alterman, a Middle East analyst at Washington’s CSIS think tank, said Pompeo’s shift in tone might be a response to the European move.
“There is an Iranian effort to peel off Europe. Holding open the possibility of reconsidering is an effort to keep Europe on side,” he added, though he saw little chance of a US policy shift. “In the current environment, the chances are very low, but the environment keeps changing.”
“Pompeo appears to view the epidemic as a handy means to compound ‘ maximum pressure,’” Washington Post columnist Jackson Diehl wrote on Sunday. “To what end?”
Germany said on Tuesday that France, Germany and Britain had exported medical goods to Iran.