Khamenei Bans Imports of U.S., British Coronavirus Vaccines

On Friday, Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei has prevented the government from importing coronavirus vaccines from the United States and Britain, according to Sky News Arabia.

In a live televised speech, Khamenei said: "Imports of U.S. and British vaccines into the country are forbidden. I have told this to officials and I'm saying it publicly now."

Khamenei added that If the Americans had been able to produce a vaccine, their country would not have witnessed such a catastrophic failure in combating the Coronavirus.

Earlier, Iran announced the first infection with the mutated Coronavirus, at a time when the country was facing a crisis in the medical sector to confront the pandemic.

Iran is one of the countries in the Middle East most affected by the Coronavirus pandemic, as it recorded more than 1250000 infections and about 55000 deaths, according to official figures, in light of estimates that the number is much higher.

Iran was one of the first countries to move to the pandemic after its appearance in China in late 2019. It has become the main focus from which the pandemic moved to neighboring countries.

The mullahs` regime’s management of the coronavirus crisis was criticized even by its prominent members, especially with regard to hiding the number of infections at the beginning of the outbreak.