An official of the Iranian Customs Organization on Thursday confirmed that a consignment of medical equipment purchased from Germany worth around 749,000 euros (about $800,000) has been delivered to Iran. Speaking to the Islamic Republic News Agency, the Director-General of Customs Office Sadeq Namdar at the Turkish border said the equipment delivered from Germany consists of haematology testing machines, flow cytometry tubes and autoanalyzer machine accessories.
The first consignment of the ingredients for use in Iran’s pharmaceutical industry from Germany was also delivered on April 3 to help Iran fight the coronavirus pandemic and three more deliveries of pharmaceutical ingredients have been made since then.
It is not yet clear whether the imported shipments are related to the Instrument in Support of Trade Exchanges (INSTEX), or independent from the mechanism which is meant to make humanitarian trade with Iran possible without violating U.S. sanctions.
In a separate development, in a statement on Tuesday UNICEF said with the “generous financial support of the Government of Germany” the organization has procured and shipped special dressings for children suffering from epidermolysis bullosa (EB), a rare hereditary disease.
Children suffering from the disease which is also known as butterfly disease have very fragile skin and develop blisters or wounds like third-degree burns that require the use of special dressings. The wound dressings provided by UNICEF are a product of the Swedish pharmaceutical company Molnlycke.
Iranian officials hold the United States responsible for the shortage of medical equipment and medicine, particularly for the treatment of rare diseases, cancer and coronavirus in the country.
The U.S. government has repeatedly asserted that humanitarian aid to Iran is not subject to Washington’s sanctions. However, Iran argues that since the country’s banking network is under the sanctions, financial transfers to purchase humanitarian items have become complicated.
