The spokesman for the European External Action Service, Peter Stano, acknowledged that the EU did not have the means to convince the United States to lift its sanctions against Iran, while the Iranian mission to the United Nations on Thursday (19 March) urged the international community to ask Washington to lift them.
According to the mission, this lifting would allow Iran to import medicines and medical equipment to deal with the Covid-19 pandemic.
Mr Stano said that the EU did not have the capacity to influence states' sanctions policies, as this was a matter of national sovereignty. "But we are trying to find ways to help Iran on the purely humanitarian issue", he promised.
The Instex mechanism, created by the Europeans, should in particular allow trade linked to humanitarian aid and health. In June 2018, a European diplomat had expressed concern about the impact of US sanctions on the daily lives of Iranians, particularly on humanitarian aid and the price of medicines (see EUROPE 12278/16).
The Iranian mission described the US sanctions as a "crime against humanity", saying that they made it "virtually impossible for Iranians to import necessary medicines and medical equipment". According to Iran, it is very difficult for the country to import the medicines it needs because of the difficulty of using its financial resources abroad, due to the American sanctions. (Original version in French by Camille-Cerise Gessant)