“The U.S. should stop blocking the flow of aid from other countries and international institutions and allow financial transactions for the fight against COVID-19 to be conducted easily,” he said.

He called on all independent and civilized countries in the world to ignore these illegal, cruel and baseless sanctions and defy them, so that Iran could overcome coronavirus pandemic through cooperation.

He underlined that the American officials have always been in a state of confusion over various issues and added: “The president says one thing, the state secretary says something else, other people in charge of Iran affairs go their own way, and there are also various ideas in Congress. What matters is that the sanctions are cruel and illegal, as the entire world acknowledges this.”

Warning the international community that a failure to stand against the US’ unilateral and bullying policies would cause problems for other countries sooner or later, he stated: “The U.S. did not show mercy even to their friends and allies. Any financial or spiritual assistance to the US in imposing sanctions against other countries will one day grip them as well.”

On 8 May 2018, U.S. President Donald Trump announced that the United States would withdraw from the Iran nuclear deal.

Following the U.S. withdrawal, the EU enacted an updated blocking statute on 7 August 2018 to nullify US sanctions on countries trading with Iran.

In September 2019, a U.S. official stated that the United States will sanction whoever deals with Iran or purchases its oil. Also in September 2019, in response to a suspected Iranian attack on key Saudi Arabian oil facilities, Trump said that he directed the Treasury Department to "substantially increase" sanctions on Iran. The new sanctions targeted the Iranian national bank.

A Senior Trump Administration official said the new sanctions targeted the financial assets of the Supreme leader's inner circle. However, Tehran has disclaimed playing any part in the attacks that affected the Saudi oil facilities.

On 21 February 2020, Iran was placed on the FATF blacklist.

“The Trump administration’s broad sanctions on Iran have drastically constrained the ability of the country to finance humanitarian imports, including medicines, causing serious hardships for ordinary Iranians and threatening their right to health,” Human Rights Watch said in a report released on 29 October 2019. (ILKHA)