Official: US, Europe Accomplices in Death of Iranian Patients with Special Needs

Baqeri Kani made the remarks, addressing a meeting of high-ranking Judiciary officials, headed by Iran’s Judiciary Chief Seyed Ebrahim Rayeesi on Monday.

He referred to a recent meeting with the foreign ambassadors to Tehran on the inhumane impacts of sanctions on the Iranian people, and said that two Thalassemia and Epidermolysis Bullosa (EB) patients who represented their peers were present in the meeting and elaborated on the hard situation of patients in the face of drugs shortages due to the US sanctions.

 “The patients stated that several people and children had died during the past year due to the lack of access to the necessary medicine and medical equipment,” Baqeri Kani said.

He added that the countries which have imposed sanctions against Iran and their collaborators, led by the US and certain European countries, are definitely accomplices in the death of these innocent children.

Baqeri Kani had also on Sunday slammed the new US administration for pursuing the illegal sanctions imposed by the Trump administration on drugs and medical equipment against Iran.

“Now that a new administration has been empowered in the US, they continue the same path of sanctions against the Iranian people and pressure them to make concessions, and it is a step beyond Trump in crimes against humanity,” Baqeri Kani said.

“Medicine and medical equipment and food are not liable to sanctions, but they are also sanctioned by the Western countries, specially the European ones,” he added.

In a relevant letter in January, thousands of Iranian patients with special needs in a letter to UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres called for his efforts to lift the US unilateral sanctions against Iran which have blocked the country’s access to drugs and medical equipment.

“The illegal US economic sanctions have prevented our access to health care, medicine and medical supplies. In the last two years, we have repeatedly pursued supply of drugs and medical equipment with the Iranian government and even pharmaceutical companies or companies supplying drugs and medical equipment for a wide range of patients with special needs, mostly children and minors. But due to the implementation of the US illegal sanctions and, especially the obstacles posed by Washington to financial exchanges, the imports of drugs and medical equipment for these patients is not possible,” the letter said.

It added that the US sanctions have led to the loss of a significant number of patients, some of them have suffered serious physical injuries, and in general, the patients have suffered and sustained severe physical and psychological harms.

“We are still suffering from this shortage of medicine and medical equipment,” the letter noted.

It warned that dozens of thalassemia and epidermolysis bullosa patients, especially children, etc. have lost their lives due to the lack of their special-need medicine and medical equipment due to the US systematic and organized policy called comprehensive crippling sanctions against Iran.

The letter called on Guterres to take all necessary measures to prevent continued criminal sanctions against the oppressed and defenseless patients who are under the support of non-governmental organizations, and take necessary measures to implement human rights and humanitarian law in UN member states.

The letter was written by the heads of Iranian Thalassemia" Association, Iranian MS Association, EB House of Iran, Iranian Kidney Patients Support Association, Hemophilia Center of Iran and Iranian Autism Association, representing thousands of Iranian patients with special needs.

The US sanctions and restrictions on export of drugs and medical equipment to Iran have shortened the breath of patients suffering from cancer, hemophilia, epilepsy and thalassemia.

Despite the American officials' claims of not imposing sanctions on imports of drugs to Iran, some specific medications needed for rare diseases are hard to obtain in the country due to banking embargos that hamper money transactions which causes some Western companies to refuse to sell the necessary drugs and medical equipment to Tehran.