یاری خواهی از سازمان جهانی بهداشت و نهادهای حقوق بشری

Groups Objecting To Iran’s Supreme Leader’s Decision

To Ban Import And Use Of Covid-19 Vaccine Made In

The United States, Britain, And France

(This is not a verbatim translation of the petition in Persian but it keeps the spirit and purpose of the original. )

It has been over four decades that Iran’s theocratic rulers keep violating the welfare and security of the Iranian people in the name of confronting the Western world. The latest of such sociopathic policies is Ayatollah Ali Khamenei’s reckless decision to prohibit Covid-19 vaccine developed in the United States, Great Britain, and France. This decision threatens the right of Iranians to have access to vital medicine.

https://mail.google.com/mail/u/1/#sent/QgrcJHrnvrTprJWTPXSgbKxPvkdHRHTDVHl

Contrary to the approval of the vaccine produced in America, Britain and France by leading world scientists, a cleric who knows nothing about medical research claims that the vaccine produced in these  countries is “completely untrustworthy and the likely purpose of its use is to contaminate other nations.”

Given Khamenei’s absolute power as the Supreme Leader of the Islamic Republic, even medical specialists are not permitted to disagree with his baseless opinion.  And if an ordinary citizen dares to question the irrational policy, she/he could be arrested and charged with acting against the interest of the state. From the very beginning of the Covid-19 cases appearing in Iran, Khamenei and his lackeys denied the danger of the pandemic and offered praying as cure. This response to the pandemic has made Iran among the top ten countries for the number of Covid-19 death.

International rights groups have criticized Iran for banning the vaccine from the three countries mentioned above.  The World Health Organization (WHO) has responded to Iranian leader by urging him not to politicize the distribution of vaccine. https://www.rferl.org/a/rights-groups-criticize-iran-ban-on-us-british-covid-vaccines/31039991.html

Tara Sepehri Far, Iran researcher at Human rights Watch, focuses on the anti human rights nature of Khamene’s decision when she writes, “Iranians have the right to access safe, effective and affordable Covid-19 vaccine as soon as possible. Decisions on what vaccine is secure for the public should be guided by public health and human rights principles rather than blatant political calculations.”  
https://www.hrw.org/news/2021/01/12/iran-khameneis-reckless-ban-covid-19-vaccine

Mansoureh Mills, a researcher for Amnesty International who specializes on Iran, said the ban by Iranian authorities was "in step with the authorities' decades-long contempt for human rights, including the right to life and health." She added: "It's reckless that Iran's supreme leader is toying with millions of lives by placing politics above people. The Iranian authorities must stop shamelessly ignoring their international human rights obligations by willfully denying people their right to protection from a deadly virus that has killed more than 55,000 people in the country." https://iranintl.com/en/iran-in-brief/irans-leader-under-fire-rights-groups-banning-us-uk-vaccines

The hypocrisy of Khamenei’s decision is  revealed when we consider the fact that his personal physician, Alireza Marandi is U. S. trained and his clerical lackeys go to Europe for medical treatment while he bans a critical Western produced vaccine to the general public. Iran’s Red Crescent said the ban meant that 150,000 doses of the Pfizer vaccine that have been donated by American philanthropists will no longer be entering the country.

We the undersigned urge supporters of human rights across the world to demand the repeal of Khamenei’s decision. Victims of Covid-19 virus in Iran desperately need international support. The Iranian regime has to be pressured to purchase the vaccines approved by World Health Organization.  Khamenei must be warned that his superstitious and vengeful decision is a death sentence for the Iranian victims of the pandemic.