Mohammad Ghadamali/AP Photo
A nurse wears protective gear in a ward dedicated for people infected with coronavirus, at a hospital in Tehran.
A few days ago, I received a message from an oncologist in Iran. Through family connections, I had reached out to a few medical professionals in Tehran, inquiring about the extent to which U.S. sanctions have influenced the spread of the coronavirus inside the country. The response that I received was deeply alarming, to say the least. “The American sanctions have 100 percent and absolutely played a role,” the physician wrote back. “At the moment, we are dealing with a shortage of basic supplies, like masks, because there is an embargo on paper materials that we need to make more. As a result, nurses and physicians are forgoing wearing masks to give theirs to patients.”
Since 2017, when the U.S. unilaterally withdrew from the Iran nuclear deal (known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action, or JCPOA), the Iranian people have struggled strenuously under the weight of crippling sanctions imposed by the U.S. and allies on their country. The costs of this form of economic punishment have been severe and systemic. Such measures have massively restricted access to vital medicine for many ordinary Iranians, as the country struggles to finance humanitarian imports, according to a 2019 report released by Human Rights Watch. Included in this category are “specialized drugs for children living with and recovering from cancer,” as an aid worker in Tehran tells me in private correspondence.
But we have now entered a new era in the history of this crisis. With the global outbreak of the coronavirus pandemic, many Iranians fear that their daily lives will soon take an even more precarious turn for the worse. As of today, there have been some 14,000 reported cases of the coronavirus in Iran, with the death toll now at nearly 900.
The situation is a direct result of economically punitive measures, imposed by the U.S. and its allies, that have stymied the flow of basic humanitarian and medical goods into Iran.
In a matter of weeks, things have gone from bad to critical, as the Iranian government scrambles to find economic and medical resources to contain the rapidly expanding outbreak. Government officials asked for $5 billion in emergency aid from the International Monetary Fund last week, while President Hassan Rouhani penned a public letter to world leaders asking for their help in dealing with this unprecedented pandemic.
The situation in Iran is extremely dire, in other words, as the country’s health resources have been completely sapped in response to the deepening crisis. And unmistakably, this is a direct result of economically punitive measures, imposed by the U.S. and its allies, that have stymied the flow of basic humanitarian and medical goods into Iran.
In their technical design and consequence, such measures should not affect the imports of medical supplies. But the reality is a different story, as sweeping restrictions on financial transactions, coupled with aggressive and punitive rhetoric from U.S. politicians, have discouraged many pharmaceutical companies from doing business with Iran—lest, that is, they are either punished by secondary sanctions themselves or have to incur reputational costs.
In line with this trend, lobbying groups with close ties to the Trump administration, such as United Against Nuclear Iran (UANI), have in recent months specifically targeted pharmaceutical sales to the country, deploying their leverage in the Trump administration to scare American and European companies out of legitimate trade deals with Iran. As Eli Clifton reports in The Intercept, the stealthy name-and-shame operations of such groups has been a major driver of the reluctance on the part of many Western companies to do humanitarian trade with Iran. And this trade is the primary source of medical supplies flowing into the country, which the government would typically rely on to manage a pandemic like the coronavirus.
Of course, economic sanctions are not the sole contributor to the critical state of affairs that many Iranians are faced with today. Governmental ineptitude from inside of Iran, as journalist Negar Mortazavi has pointed out, has also played a major role in accelerating the spread of the coronavirus. For instance, the government did not take appropriate precautions during the parliamentary elections in February to discourage mass gatherings, instead inviting the electorate to congregate at the polls. In equal parts, popular trust in the power of the government to handle this crisis has waned, especially in light of the handling of the tragedy of Ukrainian Flight 752. And out of this lack of trust has developed an informational skepticism wherein some members of the public refuse to heed the government’s calls for additional cautionary measures.
That said, many medical professionals and aid groups in Iran believe that sanctions have played a deadly role in aggravating the outbreak of the coronavirus. One young man in Tehran told me that everyday health problems have been severely exacerbated due to the vast shortages resulting from sanctions. This isn’t just about medicine or over-the-counter supplies, but staples such as vegetables and beef that are essential for basic nutrition. “The sanctions have proved nothing but pain for us,” he tells me.
So what can be done, at least in this moment of global crisis, to assuage the pains of everyday Iranians?
First and foremost, we have to bear in mind that this pandemic is a crisis without borders. While many of us fear for the safety of our loved ones in the U.S., it is imperative that we do not forget that millions of others are facing similar (and perhaps even more uncertain) risks outside the U.S. But we should further channel this compassion to demand that our elected officials pressure the Trump administration into temporarily lifting the sanctions—as Trump’s predecessors did during times of crisis. Rep. Ilhan Omar, for instance, has in recent days urged the Congress to demand a suspension of these measures, which we know are inhibiting the flow of humanitarian goods into Iran. And we, as concerned citizens and members of a global community, can demand that other officials in Congress join such calls to lift the brutal sanctions on Iran, for the practical reason of containing the further outbreak of this pandemic, but also on the moral grounds that innocent people should not have to pay for political disagreements between governments.
