Zarif Warns Against Continued Unilateral Policies amid Coronavirus Outbreak

By Staff, Agencies

Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif said on Monday that if an outbreak of the coronavirus pandemic fails to stop irresponsive unilateralism, then the world will witness another defeat of the moral values.

Making the remarks on his personal Instagram page, Zarif said that this time he is defending not just the borders and interests of his own country, but the humanity and its right to live and stay alive.

These days the world is battling against a common challenge, Zarif said.

“In order for the world efforts to yield fruit and in order for the world to return to [normal] life, we have to believe that all the planet Earth is a battlefield and in wherever part of the world we fail, the entire world will be defeated,” he said. 

The world owes to all the efforts made either in Wuhan or in Tehran, or in Milan, or in Madrid or in New York, Zarif stressed.

He further noted that the combat against the coronavirus disease [COVID-19] is a human campaign, noting that any disruption of this campaign would be extremely immoral and inhumane.

Iran’s health system, citizens and the governments are grappling with COVID-19 as those in Europe and the US, but what doubles the suffering of the Iranians and limits their choices for crisis management is the coincidence of sanctions and the disease, Zarif said.

Iran is the only country that cannot easily buy its required supplies in the fight against the virus, he added.

The sanctions should not be allowed to lead to a “criminal war” any more, Zarif went on to say.

This is the ugliest image of a government addicted to sanctions which is seeking to revive the failed campaign of maximum pressure against Iran by weakening the country in the face of the coronavirus outbreak, he stressed.