Minister: Iran Producing 96% of Needed Medicine at Home
"At the onset of the revolution (1979) five percent of our medicines were home-made, but the figure has now reached 96.7%, and a maximum of 4 percent of pharmaceutical products sold in the Iranian market are foreign made," Dastjerdi said in Iran's Southern port city of Bushehr today.
She stressed Iran's high level of capability in medical fields, and said, "Iran has made good success in pharmaceutical production and its world ranking is even above that of China."
Iran has managed to produce several types of medicines, including hi-tech pharmaceutical products used for treating various kinds of diseases despite the sanctions imposed against the country.
Rapporteur of the parliament's Health Commission Hassan Tamini also announced in similar remarks earlier this year that Iranian experts and scientists produce 96% of the country's needs to medicine and 85% of its needed disposable medical tools and equipment, and expressed the hope that the figure would increase to 100% at the end of the country's Fifth Five-Year Development Plan (2010-2015).
Fars News Agency :: Minister: Iran Producing 96% of Needed Medicine at Home
Editorial: Lies My Mullah Told Me
If youre feeling sad that the close of the election cycle will mean an end to distortions, half-truths and outright lies, never fear! Iranian leaders are picking up the slack even before Nov. 6.
The theater of the absurd emanating from Iran is comical at best, pathetic at worst. While Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei continues to assert no impact to Iran from the stinging economic sanctions, his English-language network is accusing the West of harm emanating from imposing restrictions on medical imports that are tantamount to genocide.
No, really, heres the story as reported in the Jerusalem Post: PressTV quoted a unnamed patient as asking why ordinary Iranians should die because of medicine shortages, while in a previous report, the state-run channel claimed that the sanctions are causing carnage and that six million Iranian lives were at stake, using the figure to hint that the U.S. and Europe were committing genocide in Iran.
Is the West taking sadistic pleasure in incurring genocidal deaths or does the West naively believe that they are achieving their fiendish goals in the Muslim country? the report questioned.
This, by the way, is apparently at the same time that Porsches are continuing to be imported into Iran for the benefit of the ruling regime.
It is hardly surprising that Iran would utilize genocide terminology. After all, its institutional anti-Semitism, anti-Zionism and Holocaust denial lead the world. Whats different at this juncture, however, is how chaotic and inconsistent the messages coming out of the country are becoming.
Khamenei for his part continues to claim the Iranian resistance economy is building self-reliance, all the while causing supposed protests across the West.
None of it makes sense, of course, and theres very good reason for that. The nation is split in two right now, with the hypocritical religious ruling class keeping their power through the fear and might of the military and the dread Revolutionary Guard, as the mainstream populace is being sacrificed into an economic abyss.
It remains to be seen what all this will do for the prospects of a nuclear weapons program in Iran, but the mullahs seem to be doing everything in their constricting world to keep up either the work or the perception thereof. Anything of true cultural import has been scuttled; the national orchestra was shut down recently for lack of financial support, and the impacts on families and children are substantial with Iranian currency plunging continually to all-time lows. Anything for the good of weapons of mass destruction.
Theres a bit of Iranic oops, ironic justice in all this as it pertains to oil prices in the United States. As you may have noticed at the pump recently, prices have recently dipped about as low as theyve been in quite some time. And not only is demand in Europe mitigated by the flailing economies, but their economies have been used to pricey gas (much more so than us) for awhile. So the only ones really feeling the squeeze are Iranians and their limited set of terrorist allies.
This is all probably pretty good news for most of the Arab nations throughout the Middle East as well, though they would be reticent to say so publicly. There are many more nations that dont want Iran to have nuclear capability than do, and other than perhaps Russia and China (for selfish reasons of their own) and terrorist groups like Hezbollah, no one is likely to come to their defense on the international stage.
Will this economic deprivation and isolation be enough to bring a seriously weakened Iran to the negotiating table for real? Who knows; almost everything the regime has done in the past is a stall tactic designed to stretch out the timeframe long enough for them to enrich uranium to a sufficient level to allow for warhead capability. The Iranians have become the worlds master liars, and theres plenty of reason to assume they wont stop.
But thats not really the issue right now. Until and unless the Americans and Israelis together determine when and how to implement a plan for bunker busting through mountainsides and subterranean tunnels (a plan, by the way, that almost surely requires American military might), everything else economic deprivation, cyberdamage, diplomatic isolation must be done, and done as aggressively as possible to keep the thumbscrews on the mullahs.
It is sad beyond belief that the lying, wholly untrustworthy Iranian leadership continues to subject its own populace to brutal hardship to perpetuate its own madness. But as sad as it is, the alternative of a whole world of sadness should Iran get the bomb is even worse. And thats why the pressure must be relentless and unforgiving.
Editorial: Lies My Mullah Told Me - St. Louis Jewish Light: Local News - Editorial: Lies My Mullah Told Me: Local News
US Sanctions on Iran Exempt Popcorn as 'Humanitarian Aid'
Humanitarian aid is part of the reason US exports to Iran rise as sanctions stiffen. Aid includes Coca-Cola, Kraft cheese and popcorn
The U.S. Census Bureau reported last week that tough American sanctions have not prevented U.S. shipments to Iran from rising 25 percent since the beginning of this year, with most of the increase ascribed to wheat and other grains. Almost overlooked in the increased exports is humanitarian aid that includes popcorn.
The New York-based financial site Minyanville asked, "And why would Ahmadinejad & Co. turn to the Great Satan for provisions? and then answered, quoting an American wheat trader who told Reuters back in March: "If they need something really quick and reliable, the US is there to do it."
"You can only get so many cargoes out of Brazil or Germany quickly," the trader explained. "Russia obviously still has some logistical issues and if they want more, and they want it in April or May at the latest, they're going to have to come to the US."
However, the complicated sanctions have created a web of confusion in which popcorn is included in humanitarian aid. Exporters of more basic foods are allowed to ship but often cannot get paid because of restrictions on bank transfers.
Medicines, agricultural commodities and foods are exempt from sanctions, but Thomas Pickering, former U.S. ambassador to the United Nations and Under Secretary of State for Political Affairs, was quoted by Minyanville's Justin Rohrlich as having said, We issue licenses for sales of food and medicine to Iran, but it is not legal for them to pay for it."
Most names of companies allowed to export to Iran are not published, but Procter & Gamble and Coca-Cola confirmed to the Wall Street Journal last August that they ship to the Islamic Republic.
What is defined as humanitarian aid?
Apparently, cigarettes. Rohrlich wrote that Phillip Morris received a license to sell cigarettes to Iranians, and Kraft Foods was given permission to export, among other items, cheese, cake mix and mayonnaise.
Last, if not least, Iranians can munch on Jolly Time popcorn, thanks to permission to the American Pop Corn company to export the snack as a humanitarian food exception.
Rohrlich added that the companys food products export manager Henry Lapidos told the Times, "I don't see us supporting the ayatollahs. I don't think the Revolutionary Guard -- that soldiers would take microwaveable popcorn in their backpacks when they go to war.
"Popcorn has fibers, which are helpful to the digestive system. So it could be considered humanitarian, though it's pushing the envelope."
Iranians wanting to stay fit with extra health goodies can do so with NatureFit weight-loss supplements, but Muscle Gauge Nutrition was fined for trying to ship protein powder to Iran.
Minyanville noted the confusion does not stop there.
The export of diapers is prohibited, but wood pulp used to make the padding in them is allowed.
US Sanctions on Iran Exempt Popcorn - Global Agenda - News - Israel National News
US ramps up wheat and grain sales to Iran in 2012, surprising in face of US claims to isolate Iran economically-Reuters
October 18, 2012
US ships $89.2 million in wheat and grains to Iran in first 8 months of 2012, made no such shipments in entire 2011.
10/15/12, U.S. exports to Iran rise nearly one-third despite sanctions, Reuters, Al Arabiya
U.S. exports to Iran rose by nearly a third this year, chiefly because of grain sales, according to U.S. data released last week, despite the tightening of U.S. financial sanctions.
The jump to $199.5 million in the first eight months of 2012 from $150.8 million a year earlier, according to Census Bureau data, is surprising given Western efforts to isolate Iran economically because of its suspected pursuit of nuclear arms.
The increase masks a drop in the export of some humanitarian goods such as medicines, a decline U.S. exporters blame largely on the difficulty of getting paid by Iranian importers because of new U.S. financial sanctions.
But it also shows that goods such as milk products and medical equipment - whose sale to Iran is allowed with a Treasury Department export license continue to flow despite the sanctions and the payments difficulties
.
The largest category of U.S. exports to Iran through August, 2012 was $89.2 million in sales of wheat and other grains. During the same 2011 period, the United States exported no wheat or such grains to Iran, though it sold $21 million of maize.
Without the wheat sales, U.S. exports to Iran would have declined through August overall, sharply in some cases.
Medicinal and pharmaceutical products, including those sold in bulk and those for animals, fell to $14.9 million from $26.7 million. Pulp and waste paper, a category that includes the raw material for diapers, sank to $17.4 million from $40.9 million.
However, exports rose in several other categories. Sales of milk products including cream, butter and other fats and oils derived from dairy more than doubled to $20.3 million from $7.8 million.
Medical, dental, surgical and other electro-diagnostic apparatus rose to $8 million from $4.7 million.
via Free Republic
US ramps up wheat and grain sales to Iran in 2012, surprising in face of US claims to isolate Iran economically-Reuters « Impeach Obama Today
Iran Sanctions Take Unexpected Toll on Medical Imports
TEHRAN Sitting on one of the many crowded benches in the waiting room of the International Red Crescents pharmacy in central Tehran, Ali, 26, was working his phone. After nearly six weeks of chasing down batches of Herceptin, an American-made cancer medicine, Ali, an engineer, was wearing out his welcome with friends and relatives in other Iranian cities, who had done all they could to rustle up the increasingly elusive drug.
At home his mother waited, bald and frail after chemotherapy for her breast cancer, but Herceptin had disappeared from pharmacies and hospitals in the capital.
So you are telling me that a pharmacy in Qazvin has 20 batches left? Ali asked, talking about a city two hours drive east of Tehran. Please buy whatever you can get your hands on.
But five minutes later bad news came: Gone? O.K., thank you for your troubles. If you do find some please call me by the soonest.
Herceptin, like many other Western-made medicines, has become increasingly hard to obtain in Iran as a result of the American-led sanctions meant to force Iran to stop enriching uranium, a critical element in what the United States says is a nuclear weapons program.
Iranian doctors, patients and officials say that, in particular, a ban on financial transactions is so effective that even medicines and other critical supplies that are exempted from the sanctions for humanitarian reasons are no longer exported to the Islamic Republic.
The trade measures have led to widespread shortfalls of imported goods and a plunge in the value of the national currency, the rial. On Friday, when Iranians celebrated the annual Day of Fighting the Global Arrogance, a k a the United States, student demonstrators in Tehran carrying an effigy of President Obama handed out fliers denouncing the sanctions.
Officials here estimate that potentially about six million patients, many of them with cancer, are affected by the shortages.
For Irans sick, it amounts to life on what feels like the front lines of a battle between governments.
Every day patients and their relatives line up at special pharmacies in Tehran, where those suffering from cancer, hemophilia, thalassemia, kidney problems and other diseases are increasingly told the foreign-made medicines they need are no longer available.
For Ali and his family, the nightmare started eight months ago, when his mother, a 56-year-old homemaker, felt a small, painful lump in her right breast. After a series of examinations, her doctor told her that she had an aggressive form of breast cancer.
As the members of the family became familiar with long waits in hospital hallways and difficult conversations with soft-spoken physicians, they swore to one another that they would beat the disease. But they never expected to have to go out hunting for medicine.
Ali, who does not want his family name mentioned because he said he had been punished for political activities in college, said that trying to deal with his mothers cancer had been hard. She needed 14 more batches of Herceptin, he said. Instead of hoping her treatment would cure her breast cancer, he said, he was devoured by worries about obtaining the medicine she needed.
My mom, us, other patients, we are all caught in the middle of this political battle, he said. We dont have any influence on nuclear policies. We are victims.
In Irans health care system, the government and private employers insure most of the population, paying up to 90 percent for drugs and medical treatments. Medical standards are higher compared with most neighboring countries, and many of those with special diseases receive treatment.
In the 13 Aban pharmacy, Kokan Tashakori, 72, said she left her house at 6:30 a.m. to be first in line for Paclitaxel to treat her bladder cancer. Mrs. Tashakori, a former nurse, had come to the same pharmacy for three days straight, but each time the pharmacists had told her nothing had arrived.
While waiting, she chatted with Soroud Qazi, 53, from the western Iranian city of Arak, who had a relative undergoing chemotherapy in the capital. Dont lose your spirit, my sister, Mrs. Tashakori told Mrs. Qazi, who was sitting next to her. But I am losing all hope, Mrs. Qazi replied, saying her sick family member became depressed when she heard the medicines were not available. God will save us, Mrs. Tashakori concluded.
Their faith in a higher power came as they blamed both their own leaders and the United States for the situation they were in. This is so wrong, Mrs. Tashakori said of the sanctions. This is the fault of both governments; they should solve their problems.
Instead, Mr. Obama has said the Iranian people should blame their own leaders, while Irans supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, has repeatedly called upon his nation to be steadfast and said that only resistance to the West would lead to victory.
Though the unilateral sanctions put in place by the United States and the European Union have exemptions for medicines and medical equipment, as well as foodstuffs, companies interested in selling such merchandise to Iran require a special license from the Treasury Departments Office of Foreign Asset Control.
Last month, the office eased the bureaucracy that American medical and food exporters faced in obtaining these exemptions, by granting them what it called a standing authorization, which means the exemptions no longer have to be obtained on a case-by-case basis.
But the effects of such a move are unclear, since the exporters still face troubles getting paid. Virtually no American or European bank wants to be involved in financial transactions with Iran, no matter what products are involved.
The Treasury Department has been handing down steep fines to Western banks for doing business with Iran.
In September, the British banking giants HSBC and Standard Chartered said they were in settlement talks with the American authorities after having been accused, among other things, of dealing with Iran. HSBC has told its shareholders it made a $700 million provision to cover a possible fine.
Banks are either afraid, or cant be bothered to try and do business with Iran, one Western diplomat in Tehran said, requesting to remain anonymous because of the sensitivity of the subject.
At the Charity Foundation for Special Diseases in north Tehran, Fatima Hashemi, the foundations chairwoman and daughter of the former president, Ali Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani, said her organization had spent most of last year stocking up on dialysis machines and special cancer drugs.
I wish the government had done the same, she said.
In addition to shortages of medicines, she said, hospital machines were breaking down from a lack of spare parts, and domestic pharmaceutical companies were running out of imported raw materials.
Industry insiders point to a more insidious problem: corruption. Seven years of mass imports have not only made Iran dependent on foreign suppliers, but have also bred a class of predatory officials who get kickbacks from import deals.
One Iranian producer of a vital cancer treatment product, who asked to remain anonymous because he feared losing his license, said he was ready to start production, after three years of investments and quality checks.
But it turns out the cousin of the health official in charge of signing off on our product had been importing the product in bulk from Europe before the sanctions, the producer said.
Its just bewildering how selfish some of these people are, he said. Even with stock drying up, They still will not give us our license to produce inside Iran.
Iran Sanctions Take Toll on Medical Imports - NYTimes.com
Medicines dry up in Iran but Porsches still roll in
ROFITEERING by Iran's Revolutionary Guard is pushing the country to the brink of a health crisis as imports of vital medicines dry up - while luxury goods continue to flow to the Islamic Republic's ruling elite.
A subsidised exchange rate, imposed by the government to protect imports of food and medicine from the collapse of its currency, has been exploited by companies linked to the Revolutionary Guard to bankroll the purchase of sports cars and other luxury items.
At the same time, the powerful militia is steadily excluding the health ministry from access to cheap dollars to buy medicines and equipment. According to sources inside Iran, 87 of the top 100 in-demand medicines, including treatments for leukaemia and multiple sclerosis, have been cut off from the subsidised market. Health institutions have had to import medicine through the private sector, where they fall prey to unscrupulous traders and currency dealers.
"This is all being controlled by the Revolutionary Guard. They have prioritised foods like meat, rice, flour and sugar, the things that might actually provoke riots if they run out," said one Iranian source.
"They have calculated that medicine is not a priority because the sick don't riot."
Under pressure from international sanctions, the Iranian rial has fallen to an all-time low against the US dollar, sparking clashes on the streets of Tehran two weeks ago. On Thursday , the currency passed 40,000 to the US dollar, less than half its value a year ago.
To offset the impact of the currency crisis, the regime has imposed a three-tiered exchange rate for imports. Essential items in the top tier, including basic foodstuffs and medicine, should enjoy a rate of 12,260 rials to the dollar.
Instead, health officials have found access to cheap dollars blocked and have been forced to shop on the open market at three times the price. A 4 million ($5m) agreement to purchase pharmaceuticals from Switzerland last week collapsed after the currency dealer added a 25 per cent premium on the deal.
Rather than protecting basic goods for ordinary Iranians, the tiered rate has encouraged corruption and widened the gulf between rich and poor.
The situation moved Iranian Health Minister Marzieh Vahid Dastjerdi to speak out on Wednesday. "We have been pursuing the currency which we were told was allocated to import medicine with since February but ... the amount received is so little it's not even worth mentioning," she said.
Even when medical imports are granted the subsidised rate, Iranian sources say, health companies often receive only a fraction of their order, as middlemen siphon off the discounted dollars for black-market currency trading.
While medicines vanish from pharmacy shelves, the Revolutionary Guard continues to oversee imports of luxury goods to the elite, often at the subsidised 12,260 rate.
When Porsche issued a limited edition of its classic 911 sports car this year, two companies linked to Etebarat Mehr Financial Services, part of the Revolutionary Guard's investment arm, began taking down payments for the new model. Porsche had estimated 40 sales to the Islamic Republic. But after a surge in requests from wealthy Iranians, the companies requested 1400 vehicles.
Etebarat Mehr is exempt from oversight by Iran's central bank and, like most of the Revolutionary Guard's operations, is able to work outside the law. The same subsidiaries are thought to be behind the arrival of 750 luxury cars imported with dollars purchased at the 12,260 exchange rate this year. The government launched an investigation into the claim last week, but Iranians are sceptical.
THE TIMES
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Iran sends mixed messages on effect of sanctions
Supreme Leader Khamenei downplays embargoes, while 3 grand ayatollahs warn of "extreme and intolerable rising prices."
Irans state-controlled media on Monday continued to push what appeared to be very mixed messages about the effects sanctions are having on the countrys economy and population.
Irans Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps and military leaders have not digressed from the message that Iran can overcome sanctions.
However, Irans state press, particularly its English-language channels whose messages are aimed at a Western audience, has started to report that the embargoes are causing severe humanitarian issues.
West sanctions jeopardize lives of Iranian patients, read a headline on Sunday in PressTV, the Islamic Republics English-language channel, in one of several reports claiming that sanctions have caused severe shortages of essential drugs.
PressTV quoted a unnamed patient as asking why ordinary Iranians should die because of medicine shortages, while in a previous report, the state-run channel claimed that the sanctions are causing carnage and that six million Iranian lives were at stake, using the figure to hint that the US and Europe were committing genocide in Iran.
Is the West taking sadistic pleasure in incurring genocidal deaths or does the West naively believe that they are achieving their fiendish goals in the Muslim country? the report questioned.
The figure of six million originates from a letter to UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon by Fatemeh Hashemi Rafsanjani, the daughter of former Iranian president Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani, and head of Irans Charity Institute for Special Diseases.
Hashemi Rafsanjani wrote the letter two months ago but Irans state media has reported the move only now.
The decision to run the medicine shortage story comes after earlier reports by the Persian-language reformist website Kaleme, close to reformist leader Mir-Hossein Mousavi that members of Irans Majlis Industry Committee are investigating how the regime imported luxury cars, including Porsches, at the official exchange rate of 12,260 tomans to the dollar, while patients are having difficulty obtaining essential drugs.
PressTV does not mention the Majlis investigation in its reports on the drugs shortage.
While Irans state-run press has begun to highlight the humanitarian effects of illegal sanctions, Khamenei continued to downplay the effect of the embargoes and to repeat vows that Iran will never back down over its nuclear program.
Through official speeches, Khamenei has repeatedly urged Iranians to shun foreign goods as a way to boost Irans resistance economy, which he has said involves reducing dependence on oil, empowering the private sector and managing consumption.
Domestic consumption increases domestic production. When domestic production is increased, it tackles unemployment and reduces inflation. These are all connected, he said this month.
While Khameneis message has been consistently defiant, other religious leaders have warned that the Iranian people might not feel the same way.
Three grand ayatollahs Makarem Shirazi, Safi Golpayegani and Shobeiri Zanjani warned Khamenei and the Iranian government via an open letter published this month that Iranians had complained about economic difficulties, particularly extreme and intolerable rising prices that have targeted the lower classes, according to the Al- Monitor website.
On Monday, however, Khamenei continued to argue that while the West has created problems for Iran, Western sanctions are also affecting the US and Europe.
Mondays edition of the hard-line daily Kayhan, which serves as a mouthpiece for Khamenei, led with the headline Widespread protests in Italy, France and Spain: Iranian economic sanctions ricochet in Europe.
European citizens are protesting against the sanctions on Iran, and saying that the embargo has worsened their living conditions and has led to an increase in poverty and unemployment, Kayhan claimed.
The Persian-language service of Fars News, which is affiliated with the IRGC, also reported on Monday that the sanctions would backfire against the West.
Much like Khamenei, Irans military leaders have also continued to emphasize the resistance economy, continuing to state publicly that sanctions are not affecting Iran, but have helped boost domestic military production.
On Sunday, Iranian Defense Minister Ahmad Vahidi told reporters that the unfair sanctions had helped advance science and technology in Iran through boosting self-reliance.
Speaking at a Tehran conference, Vahidi said the sanctions amounted to economic war on Iran, and aimed to force the Islamic Republic to surrender by hitting hard at its economy.
The winner is not the one that fires the first shot. The winner is the one who survives the final shot, he said.
According to Prof. Scott Lucas, an expert on Iran and US foreign policy from Birmingham University in the UK, the mixed messages in the Iranian media are in part because of muddle and uncertainty within the regime.
While the overall line set by the supreme leader is supposed to be the triumph of the resistance economy, there has been increasing concern as economic problems have escalated and this has fueled political tensions.
"So whereas Ahmadinejad was saying earlier this year that sanctions were no more than a scrap of paper and others including the leading academic voice Seyed Mohammad Marandi had been saying that the West and Europe would suffer most, there is now an acknowledgement that the economic war is taking a toll, Lucas told The Jerusalem Post.
Lucas said the regimes strategy over the sanctions message seems to be to unite Iranians in a valiant fight against the enemy.
That means, while the message of triumph will continue, the perfidy of the enemy in hurting Iranians will be highlighted, Lucas added.
Iran sends mixed messages on eff... JPost - Iranian Threat - News
US Loosens Sanctions On Medicine Sales to Iran
US Loosens Sanctions On Medicine Sales to Iran - Al-Monitor: the Pulse of the Middle East
While most Americans and the US foreign policy elite were focused on last weeks final presidential debate, a small office within the US Treasury Department, without fanfare, rewrote regulations governing key aspects of the Iranian sanctions.
New rules issued Oct. 22 by the Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) named the Iranian Transactions and Sanctions Regulations implement sanctions contained in last years National Defense Authorization Act and Executive Order 13599, which required American institutions to freeze the assets of the Government of Iran, the Central Bank of Iran and all other Iranian financial institutions. However, in an unexpected move, the regulations now permit US companies to sell certain medicines and basic medical supplies to Iran without first seeking a license from OFAC.
It is clear that the Treasury Department did not want much publicity surrounding the release of the new regulations. Such a major change to US sanctions would normally warrant at least a press release; even mid-level narcotics traffickers usually merit a cursory statement by OFAC Director Adam Szubin when they are designated by the office and their assets in the US are frozen.
What is most curious about the radio silence that has greeted this abrupt change is that the humanitarian costs of sanctions, particularly reported medicine shortages in Iranian hospitals, have long been an area of concern for international organizations and media.
It is difficult to predict exactly what effect the new authorization will have on the humanitarian situation in Iran, but current trade data seems to indicate that US exports covered by a general license, which allow exporters to sell certain goods without notifying OFAC, do better than those which require a specific authorization. While it was recently reported that through August, US exports to Iran were up by almost a third, the rise was driven almost entirely by sales of agricultural commodities, which as of Oct. 12, 2011, are covered under a general license.
In fact, sales of medicine were down almost $12 million compared to last year. Now that medical exporters can ship under the same general license, it is not a stretch to think that more medicine from American companies will be able to reach Iranian patients.
OFAC also included a new general license designed to facilitate payments and financing for licensed exports. Now US companies are allowed to accept a letter of credit issued by an Iranian financial institution not linked to weapons of mass destruction proliferation or terrorism, provided the letter is confirmed by a third-country financial institution. There are 20 such Iranian banks.
The new regulations are also surprising in that they are actually less restrictive than those of the European Union, known for its past concern over the sanctions humanitarian costs. Under new EU sanctions released earlier this month, all exports of humanitarian goods over 100,000 must first be authorized by the member state from which the goods are being shipped.
This is not to suggest that conducting any sort of trade with Iran will now be a cakewalk. One of the main problems for exporters is that foreign financial institutions are reluctant to process any transactions with Iran, even if authorized, for fear of running afoul of the complex web of US sanctions. Others simply do not want to worry about the reputational risk of dealing with Iran in any manner.
Additionally, a number of medicines and devices are excluded from the general license and still require a specific authorization to export. The list of authorized medical supplies contains only the most rudimentary products such as bandages, syringes and thermometers.
These steps could alleviate some of the more overt humanitarian issues that have resulted from international sanctions. However, in no way should they be interpreted as a loosening of sanctions in general. By removing the stories of Iranian children suffering due to medicinal shortages from the headlines, the administration may be hoping to strengthen the economic noose surrounding Iran and perhaps pave the way for more restrictive measures.
Samuel Cutler is a policy adviser at Ferrari & Associates, PC.
Erich Ferrari is the principal of Ferrari & Associates, PC, a Washington, DC boutique law firm specializing in US economic sanctions matters.
US Loosens Sanctions On Medicine Sales to Iran - Al-Monitor: the Pulse of the Middle East
