Washington cut its pharmaceuticals exports to Tehran by half in 2012,
according to US official data.
A pharmacy in Tehran
Exports of US pharmaceuticals and medicine to Iran were cut by
50 percent half last year, Reuters cited US government's official statistics
released on Friday as saying.
The release of official US statistics came despite the claims by certain
American officials that they "have tried to sanction Iran without unduly harming
ordinary Iranians, granting licenses, for example, to US companies that wish to
export pharmaceuticals, medical devices, food and other humanitarian goods to
Iran".
The US official data also supports the remarks by some Iranian sanctions lawyers
and independent experts that financial sanctions are making it harder for
Iranians to obtain medicine despite loopholes designed to permit such trade.
Exports of pharmaceuticals fell to $14.8 million from $31.1 million in 2011,
while sales of vitamins, medicinal and botanical drugs decreased to $4.9 million
from $10.8 million.
Exports of surgical appliances and supplies also declined to $2.4 million last
year from $3.7 million the previous year.
Sanctions lawyers have said the blacklisting of Iran's major banks has made it
extremely difficult to find smaller Iranian banks able to conduct such licensed
transactions as well as international banks willing to deal with them.
A report issued on Friday by the Woodrow Wilson International Center for
Scholars made the same point.
"Draconian penalties for a potential US sanctions violation are discouraging the
involvement of international banks in humanitarian trade with Iran," said the
report, entitled: "Sanctions and Medical Supply Shortages in Iran."
The report, written by Dubai-based consultant Siamak Namazi, said researchers in
Tehran and Dubai interviewed US and European exporters as well as Iranian
importers and found that the financial sanctions tended to scare off banks.
"Even when the most reputable American and European pharmaceutical companies are
involved and their lawyers have completed all the necessary paperwork ... nearly
all banks that Iran deals with prefer to err on the side of caution," it said.
"Their hesitation is understandable given that a mistake could earn a bank the
wrath of the US Treasury Department."
Last week, an Iranian lawmaker blasted the West for impeding medical and
pharmaceutical supplies to Iran through blocking the country's financial
transactions with foreign states.
"The US and Europe are after creating a health crisis and shortage of drugs in
Iran through their sanctions," Kermanshah's deputy Seyed Saeed Heydari said.
"The foreign media deny the imposition of sanctions on medicine and medical
equipments, but everybody knows that they (the US and its European allies) are
seeking victory in the soft war (against Iran) by any means, including the
boycott on the supply of drugs and medical equipments," he continued.
Last month in similar remarks, President of the Iranian Academy of Medical
Sciences and member of the Iranian Parliament's Health Commission Dr. Seyed
Alireza Marandi lambasted the West for banning medical and pharmaceutical
exports to Iran through blocking the country's financial transactions with
foreign states.
Marandi questioned the US and western states' claims that they have exempted
medicine from the sanctions and restrictions against Iran.
"(The sales of) medicines have not been banned directly; of course there are
some pharmaceutical companies that refuse to sell drugs to us but those which
sell medicine to us want their money and the money should be paid by the Central
Bank of Iran (CBI) and the CBI is under sanction and cannot pay the money."
"It's like you build a fence around someone to protect his security, but no one
is allowed to enter for the very same excuse, including those who want to enter
the area to bring water and food supplies. So, on the surface, you seem to have
not blocked the supply of water and foodstuff, but in essence, you do not allow
these items to arrive in that specific are," explained Dr. Marandi, a former
Health Minister.
