United Nations Secretary General 26 November 2012
His Excellency Ban Ki-Moon
As you are well aware, the United States and the European Union have imposed a financial and trade embargo against the Islamic Republic of Iran that effectively prohibits all types of financial transactions and trade between our country and all other member states of the United Nations. The objective behind these illegal and inhumane sanctions is to apply pressure on the Iranian government by inflicting pain and misery upon ordinary people. While the United States and the European Union claim that their sanctions do not directly prohibit the export of medicines and medical equipment to Iran, the financial sanctions they have imposed on the world make it vastly more difficult-in many instances impossible-for Iranian importers to pay for these items, effectively barring their transfer to Iran. These brutal measures have not only affected the overall welfare of the nation’s population, especially that of women and children, they have also led to a significant rise in suffering as well as increased mortality rates as a result of the unavailability of essential drugs and shortages of medical supplies and equipment.
In line with the 1948 Universal Declaration of Human Rights, which stresses the individual’s right to a standard of living that allows him or her to maintain health and well-being including unimpeded access to food and medical care, on behalf of the Iranian medical community, I call on you to do your utmost at least for the effective exemption of medicines, medical supplies, and foodstuffs from these unlawful sanctions. Since this type of brutal behavior alongside the successive wars and civil conflicts initiated or supported by these countries have already led to deaths on a daily basis of uncountable innocent people across the region, it is the duty of the United Nations and the global medical community to condemn such acts and to make every effort to stop such aggressive and rogue states from carrying out such atrocious policies against innocent populations.
Seyed Alireza Marandi , M.D.
Academy of Medical Sciences
Although the US-led sanctions do not directly ban selling medicine and medical supplies to Iran, the sanctions on the banking sector are effectively hindering the import of medicine to the country, thereby jeopardizing the lives of millions of patients suffering from special diseases such as thalassemia, hemophilia, hepatitis, multiple sclerosis, diabetes, and many others.
Dr. Seyed Alireza Marandi, President of Academy of Medical Sciences, has written a letter to Ban Ki-Moon, the UN Secretary General and called on him to do his utmost for the effective exemption of medicines, medical supplies, and foodstuffs from the brutal sanctions. Following is the text of Dr Marandi's letter to Ban Ki-moon.