Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Khamenei has banned the import of COVID-19 vaccines from the United States and Britain.
Speaking on state TV, the top leader said he had no confidence in receiving the vaccine from the two Western powers, according to foreign news agency AFP. In addition, Supreme Leader Ayatollah Khamenei said that “the United States and the United Kingdom have the highest death rates in the world.”
“If the Americans had succeeded in developing a vaccine, the virus would not have occurred in their own country,” he said.
Ayatollah Khamenei added that 4,000 deaths occur daily in the United States.
“If they can make a vaccine if their Pfizer factory can make a vaccine, then why would they want to give it to us?” They should use it themselves to reduce the death rate. Supreme Leader Ayatollah Khamenei said the same thing applies to Britain.
He said he did not trust the United States and Britain because he wanted to see the results of his vaccine in other nations. A spokesman for the Iranian Red Crescent Society said after the Iranian leader’s speech that plans to import 1.5 million doses of the Pfizer biotech vaccine, which were to be obtained with the help of philanthropists, had stalled.
Muhammad Hassan Ghousian told Tasnim News website that the Red Crescent Society would abide by the Supreme Leader’s statement as they differentiate right from wrong in all matters, including the import of corona vaccines.
Earlier, the Red Crescent Society announced plans to buy one million doses of the vaccine from China.
It should be noted that on December 29, the first phase of testing on the effectiveness and safety of the locally developed Coronavirus vaccine in Iran began.
Dozens of people were given the corona vaccine at the start of the trial on December 29, according to Iranian TV.
Iranian officials had expected the vaccine to be introduced by the end of spring 2021, meaning it could be ready within six months.
Iran has not yet commented on the vaccine’s regulatory approval process or the second or third phase of trials.
