The cruelty is the point with this administration and its GOP minions.The UK is privately pressing the US to ease sanctions on Iran to help it fight the growing coronavirus outbreak.
Official figures published by the Iranian health ministry on Wednesday said 1,135 have so far died in Iran and 17,361 have been infected. A total of 147 were recorded as dying in the past 24 hours, a new daily record.
The Iranian embassy in London appealed for sanctions to be lifted and warned the country’s hospitals were badly overstretched.
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A World Health Organization official said he believed the Iranian health ministry figures underestimated the true numbers by a fifth – which would mean more than 5,600 people have died.
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The US insists it has offered to provide Iran with practical help through the World Health Organization, but the Iranians have rejected any help if it does not involve lifting US sanctions.
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The Trump administration has said medical supplies are available to Iran through a new Swiss humanitarian vehicle, but UK officials fear this involves so many conditions as to be ineffective.
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Anyone seeking to trade via the recently established Swiss channel is required to receive a written undertaking from the US that they will not be sanctioned for sending medical supplies to Iran.
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The US Department of State imposed sanctions on 12 new entities on Tuesday.
Guardian
America First!The US secretary of state, Mike Pompeo, said last week that “any nation considering humanitarian assistance to Iran should seek the release of all dual and foreign nationals” from Iranian prisons.
The UK has taken a less stringent approach not making the release of all its dual nationals a precondition for aid.
After lengthy talks Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe, an Iranian-British dual national, was released on a two-week furlough on Tuesday, partly because of the coronavirus outbreak in Iranian jails. The Iranian government has released 85,000 prisoners so far, including half the political prisoners. In theory those sentenced to more than five years are not being released, but lists of released prisoners show some with longer sentences are being pardoned.
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Zaghari-Ratcliffe’s husband, Richard Ratcliffe, urged the UK government to try to build on her release to form an improved bilateral relationship. He said in London after speaking to his wife twice since her release: “This is a global crisis that affects everyone.
The cruelty is the point.The Trump administration believes the Iranians are using sanctions as an excuse to hide their own incompetence, including a reluctance to take the necessary tough measures to restrict population movements. It is also furious at what it regards as continued Iranian-inspired missile attacks on foreign military bases in Iraq.
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Iran has published a list of the supplies that it lacks, and last Thursday formally asked the IMF for a $5bn (£4.6bn) loan. European sources said it looked as if the US may use its veto on the IMF board to block the loan, saying the request did not meet the fund’s criteria. It is the first time Iran has made such a request to the IMF.
UPDATE:
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