Iran Says U.S. Sanctions Blocked Delivery of U.K.-Made Masks

(Bloomberg) --

Iran says U.S. sanctions have prevented millions of masks bought from the U.K. from arriving in the Islamic Republic, the semi-official Fars News reported, citing a deputy health minister.

“Before this all started, we had bought many millions of masks from Britain, but because of the sanctions, this country didn’t deliver the masks,” Alireza Raisi said in an interview with Fars published on Saturday.

Raisi didn’t give further details about the shipment or how sanctions blocked the delivery, which he said was meant for the Pasteur Institute in Tehran.

While humanitarian goods are exempt from direct U.S. sanctions, other, wider sanctions imposed by Washington on Iran’s banking system have scared off most foreign banks from facilitating financial transactions for imports.

Some 1,556 people have so far died from the coronavirus in Iran, since the country reported its first cases on Feb. 19. The total number of confirmed cases in the country currently stands at 20,610, according to the latest figures announced by the health ministry on Saturday.

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