“Iranian people are suffering severely from the pandemic,” Jun wrote in his Twitter account. 

He added: “The unilateral sanctions made the situation even worse.”

Earlier, the spokesman of the Chinese Foreign Ministry Geng Shuang said that the US sanctions on Iran has limited the country’s power to fight with the coronavirus epidemic.

Calling the US sanctions unilateral and inhumane, Shuang said that the people and the government of Iran are fighting COVID-19, but the US sanctions slows them down and has negative effects on purchases Iran needs to order from other countries or financial assistance to Iran.

He said that China wants all the other countries to remove their sanctions on Iran and stop interfering with Iran’s efforts to stem the epidemic and curb extent of damages to the country’s economy and livelihood of the people.

Meanwhile, Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif wrote in his Twitter account: “Iranian people appreciate the growing global campaign of government & civil society leaders calling for the lifting of illegal U.S. sanctions, U.S. is NOT listening, impeding global fight against #COVID19. The ONLY remedy: DEFY U.S. mass punishment, MORAL & PRAGMATIC imperative."

Head of Iran's Health Ministry Public Relations Office Kianoush Jahanpour said on Monday that 8,376 people out of a total of 23,049 infected by the coronavirus have survived the deadly disease while 1,812 have unfortunately succumbed to death.

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