Stark parallels exist between the policies of Ali Khamenei and Donald Trump
Ali Khamenei, the Supreme Religious Leader of the anti-popular regime of Iran, on Friday 8 January declared that, “The import [to Iran] of the US and UK-made [coronavirus] vaccines is banned.“ At another point during those same remarks – which laid bare his complete lack of knowledge of existing vaccines and his ridiculous lies about the hidden intentions behind the vaccines – Khamenei pointed to the deaths in the US resulting from COVID-19 and added, “If their Pfizer factory can make vaccines, they should first use it for themselves… Perhaps they want to test the vaccine on other nations!”Dr. Michael Ryan, Executive Director of the WHO’s Health Emergencies Programme, reacted to the Islamic Republic’s Supreme Leader by stating that, “The organisation has repeatedly stressed not to politicise the coronavirus and now says please let us not politicise this vaccine either!”
Also reacting to Khamenei’s remarks, Dr. Katherine O’Brien, Director of the WHO’s Head Department of Immunisation, Vaccines and Biologicals, stated, “This organisation, and especially the COVAX facility, have different options in its vaccine supply basket, which make it available to countries, based on their needs and conditions, especially in terms of vaccine transportation and storage facilities at low temperatures […] The existing vaccines are produced by pharmaceutical factories in various countries, which will make it more or less easier to access [depending on the preferred option].”
In response to Khamenei’s irresponsible lies, it should be noted that vaccines produced by Pfizer-BioNTech, AstraZeneca-University of Oxford and, in recent days, Moderna-NIAID, have all been approved by the World Health Organisation.
While the world hurtles into a third round of the COVID-19 pandemic, the remarks of the Supreme Leader of the Iranian theocratic regime regarding vaccines for this deadly disease – which has infected more than a million Iranians thus far, with tens of thousands of people having already died from the disease, and tens of thousands more hospitalised throughout the country – are tantamount to playing a dangerous game with the lives of millions of Iran’s citizens.
Khamenei and other regime leaders, like other anti-people politicians across the world, including the likes of Trump, have not only denied the seriousness of the risk of this deadly pandemic from the outset, but have created a major humanitarian disaster in Iran by disregarding the health and well-being of the country’s citizens.
Ali Khamenei called the coronavirus outbreak on March of last year “a trouble [that] is not that big” and later added, “It is said that a part [of the virus] has been fabricated especially targeting Iran, by studying Iranian genetics [the genetic makeup of the Iranian people].”
Denouncing the imprudent and anti-people statements made by Ali Khamenei and other regime leaders, and their lies and charlatanism regarding an “Iranian vaccine” seemingly being developed by the IRGC, as well as the sales of the vaccine on the black market by regime affiliates, the Tudeh Party of Iran believes that with public protest, the regime must be forced to retreat from this destructive policy.
The necessity of providing vaccines for all people and providing it free of charge to all citizens is an urgent and absolute necessity.
The Tudeh Party of Iran once again calls upon all freedom-loving and anti-dictatorship forces to work together to help the suffering people of our country improve their lives. In particular, we must make the critical fight with the coronavirus pandemic and defence of the public health a national goal!
Tudeh Party of Iran
9 January 2020
Source: Tudeh Party of Iran – Excerpts from the statement of the Tudeh Party of Iran The Iranian Regime’s Imprudent and Harmful Policies in response to the COVID-19 Pandemic