February 28, 2020
The US State Department has charged that the Islamic Republic is diverting state funds intended to buy imported drugs to import other items, even tobacco.
Brian Hook, the senior State Department official dealing full time with Iran issues, said January 30 that the Iranian government is diverting millions of dollars approved for medical imports to buy items such as electrical cable and tobacco products.
In other cases, he said Tehran has sold medicines on the black market and used the profits to fund military operations in Yemen, Syria, Lebanon and Iraq.
“I’m sure there are more examples we don’t know about, but the Iranian people know that their regime, not American sanctions, are to blame for their difficulties getting medical supplies,” Hook said.
A decade ago, the Iranian government complained that a shortage of pharmaceuticals was caused by an American policy of blocking sales of drugs to Iran. But the then-Health Minister, Marziyeh Vahid-Dastjerdi, said that was false. She said the government of President Mahmud Ahmadi-nejad was refusing to release foreign exchange approved by the Majlis for drug imports.
She was swiftly fired.