SULAIMANI (ESTA) — Iran’s energy minister said on Saturday that Iraq had agreed to transfer $125 million of frozen Iranian funds to a European bank for the purchase of 16 million coronavirus vaccine doses.
State news agency IRNA cited Iranian energy minister Reza Ardakanian as saying the payments would go towards the purchase of vaccines from the World Health Organization (WHO) – sponsored global COVAX vaccine-sharing plan, according to Reuters.
Iran, the hardest hit Middle Eastern country by the coronavirus, has complained that U.S. sanctions were preventing it from making payments to purchase vaccines.
Tehran has demanded the release of $20 billion of its oil revenue it says has been frozen in countries such as Iraq, South Korea and China due to U.S. sanctions since 2018.
Tehran and the powers have been meeting in Vienna since early April to work on steps that must be taken, touching on U.S. sanctions and Iran’s alleged breaches of the 2015 deal, to bring Tehran and Washington back into full compliance with the accord.
