Twenty-four former cabinet ministers and senior diplomats called on the United States on Monday (April 6) to ease humanitarian trade with Iran due to the COVID-19 pandemic, saying a targeted reduction in U.S. sanctions would have “a significant impact on the ability of Iran’s healthcare system to respond to the COVID-19 outbreak”.
In particular, they call for expanding the scope of humanitarian exemptions under U.S. sanctions to directly include devices and equipment necessary to effectively combat the coronavirus. They said the United States should issue “comfort letters” to non-U.S. banks, manufacturers, shippers and insurers to reassure them that they will not run afoul of the U.S. Office of Foreign Assets Controls (OFAC) if they provide a function for humanitarian trade with Iran.
The signatories also call on Washington not to interfere if the Executive Board of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) votes to provide the emergency financing requested by Tehran (see EUROPE 12452/9).
Four former NATO Secretaries General, former US Secretary of State Madeleine Albright, several former US Secretaries of State and Secretaries of Defence, former European Foreign Ministers and the former High Representative of the Union for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy, Federica Mogherini, are among the signatories.
See the letter: https://bit.ly/2XggJV3 (Original version in French by Camille-Cerise Gessant)