Energy rich Iran, reeling under the Covid-19 onslaught and sanctions marshaled by the United States, is testing India’s diplomatic guile, of maintaining its core strategic interests with a pivotal state in the Eurasian heartland.
On Monday, Coronavirus cases had jumped to 23,049, with 127 new deaths — pairing Iran with Italy, Spain and China, which have been worst hit.
In tune with the spiraling infections and fatalities, Iranian leaders have stepped up their campaign for the lifting of crippling U.S. sanctions which have apparently hampered the flow of essential overseas medical supplies, impeding containment of the pandemic in the Islamic Republic.
Iran’s Foreign Minister Javad Zarif is spearheading the outreach. Foreign ministers of the European Union, Japan, Indonesia, Pakistan, Nigeria, South Africa as well as the U.N. Secretary General, have been tapped over the last week for providing humanitarian assistance, as well as the lifting of sanctions re-imposed against Iran by the Trump administration.
Iran’s Foreign Ministry has slammed Washington’s assertion that is not curtailing the transfer of drugs, pointing out that Washington is interfering with the Swiss Humanitarian Trade Arrangement (SHTA) — a mechanism that would allow Tehran to access vital medical and humanitarian supplies from Switz