Foreign firms refuse to sell medicine, medical equipment to Iran over U.S. sanctions: Iranian official

TEHRAN, Dec. 1 (Xinhua) -- Head of the Food and Drug Organization of Iran said Thursday that some foreign companies have refused to sell medicine and medical equipment to Iran due to U.S. sanctions, the official IRNA news agency reported.

Heidar Mohammadi, also Iran's deputy health minister, said during the fifth meeting of representatives of international organizations stationed in Iran that as a result of U.S. sanctions on Iran's banking sector, his country cannot access many imported medical products.

"We have brought to the attention of foreign companies the problems of supplying medicines, but some of them refuse to sell drugs to Iranian patients," he said.

Mohammadi said Iran has submitted the list of required health items to relevant international organizations to ask for their assistance.

The U.S. sanctions against Iran have been intensified since 2018 after Washington pulled out of a nuclear deal between Tehran and world powers, causing a great shock to the community of Iranian special patients.

Although the United States claims that humanitarian items, including medicine and foodstuff, are not included in the sanctions list, its embargoes on Iran's oil exports and banking sector have, in practice, prevented the country from importing such goods.