Iran Bans Import of Covid Vaccines from Britain and US

THE SUPREME LEADER of Iran has banned the country from importing Covid vaccines from Britain and the US as geopolitical tensions remain high.

In a 50-minute address to the nation on state television, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei announced that importing vaccines from Britain’s AstraZeneca or America’s Pfizer-BioNTech would be “forbidden” in Iran.

He referred to the high death toll of both the US and UK, saying that “I really do not trust them”. This comes as Iran battles the worst outbreak of the pandemic in the Middle East, with over 1.3 million infections and 56,000 recorded fatalities.

Relations between Iran and Western countries have been tense in recent times and were exacerbated by the recent one-year anniversary of the US assassination of one of the country’s top generals Qasem Soleimani in January 2020. Last week, Iran informed the UN nuclear watchdog that it was planning to enrich its uranium deposits to levels not seen since the 2015 deal with world powers.

Iran has been engaged in efforts to produce its own coronavirus vaccine and began testing their prototypes on humans in December. A rollout is planned for Spring, though the Ayatollah has said that he would allow imports of doses from “safe” countries in the meantime.

Thank you for taking the time to read this news article “Iran Bans Import of Covid Vaccines from Britain and US”. For more UK daily news, Spanish daily news and Global news stories, visit the Euro Weekly News home page.