There was a variable for capture negotiations… Iran suddenly “bans import of US-UK vaccines”

Iran’s top leader, Ayatollah Hamenei, banned the import of Corona 19 vaccines from Britain and the United States on the 8th (local time), Iran’s state broadcaster IRIB reported.

According to the media, Hamenei said in a TV speech, “If Americans could produce a vaccine, the Corona 19 incident would not have occurred in the United States,” and “basically do not trust them.” He also said, “There is no problem getting the vaccine in other countries.”

Reuters added that China and Russia are Iran’s allies in this regard. It can be interpreted as meaning that vaccines from these countries can be imported instead of English-American vaccines. Iran is also developing its own vaccine.

Earlier, Iranian health authorities announced their intention to purchase the vaccine from’CoVax Facility’, an international vaccine co-purchase agreement. Cobax Facility proposed to provide vaccines for AstraZeneca, Pfizer and GlaxoSmithKline (GSK) and Sanofi as the first proposal last year. Both are English and American vaccines.

Hamenei’s remarks on that day could be interpreted as the intention that he would not accept the purchase of vaccines through Cobax Facility. It seems to be a confusion arising from Iran’s unique governing structure, where the religious leadership above the administration is a’rooftop’.

The Iranian Revolutionary Guard (IRGC), which captured the Korean ship’MT Korea Chemie’ earlier this month, is an organization following Hamenei.

As a result, there are variables in the Korean government’s initiative to solve the issue of Iranian accounts in Korea and the release of ships by linking vaccine cooperation. The Korean government previously proposed to Iran to pay for the vaccine of Kovacs Facility with an account in Iran (about US$7 billion, 7.6 trillion won). On the 6th, an advance team from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs departed to negotiate the release of the detained sailors, and Choi Jong-gun, the first vice minister of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, is also set to leave Iran.

“Iran is not in a hurry at all to return to the nuclear agreement (JCPOA),” said Hamenei, adding that “the harsh sanctions against Iran should be lifted immediately.” U.S. President-elect Joe Biden has come up with a plan to restore the Iranian nuclear agreement that the Trump administration broke after taking office.

Reporters Lee Yoo-jeong and Park Hyun-ju [email protected]