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Iranian Regime Blames Medication Shortage on Sanctions Instead of Admitting Mismanagement

Published on 11 September 2018.

By Amir Taghati

Markets in Iran have been destabilising for months. It started well before the first round of U.S. sanctions took effect at the beginning of last month.

Medicine and medical equipment have been exempted from the current sanctions according to the U.S. State department. Dr. Hassan Ghazizadeh Hashemi, the Minister of Health and Medical Education, has denied that there is an exemption in place.

The U.S. Treasury Department previously announced that Iran would still be able to purchase medical equipment and medicine as it has been doing in the past so long as it is done in a transparent way. Transactions are not allowed to be carried out through the country’s Central Bank and other sanctioned institutions.

Trump administration officials have said that the restrictions are manageable and that Iran is blowing the situation out of proportion. A claim that is denied by officials in Iran.

During the pre-deal sanction period in which the U.S. had imposed sanctions on Iran, healthcare providers had been surprised by the shortage of essential medical equipment and medication. Reserves in the country were almost exhausted and the shortage quickly became a major crisis.

However, the sanctions cannot be fully blamed for the shortage of medication and the deaths that came as a consequence of the situation. Government corruption and its complete mismanagement of the situation caused havoc.

The health minister during President Ahmadinejad’s second-term Marzieh Vahid Dastjerdi had herself indicated that the misappropriation of funds played a major role. She said that funds allocated to the import of vial medication was spent on importing luxury cars. She had said that during her time in office there was a shortage of currency to buy medicine - $2.5 billion was needed, but the ministry only got a fraction of this. Critical medicine to save lives was not one of the highest priorities.

Furthermore, the Iranian government systematically delayed the release of equipment and medication to pharmaceutical companies and let supplies sit for weeks in warehouses awaiting customs attention. Medical teams were forced to improvise enormously while trying to ensure that the lives of their patients were not put in further danger. This included in using older and outdated equipment and resorting to older methods of treatment.

The Iranian government has boasted about being able to get around the sanctions but given the history of the regime it is certain that the import of non-essential goods (like luxury cars) will be prioritised over essential goods such as medication and medical equipment.

The deputy head of Iran’s Department of Customs Mohammad Reza Naderi said that pre-JCPOA sanctions had a major impact on medicine imports. The governor of Iran’s Central Bank, Mahmoud Bahmani, said that the government had managed to supply the currency that was needed for the import of medicine. However, he said that the medicine importers had been using the currency to import luxury cars. A claim that was also made by Marzieh Vahid Dastjerdi.

The people of Iran have been calling for regime change because of the governments systematic mismanagement and widespread corruption.

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