Swiss companies welcome channel to send medicine and food to Iran

Brian Hook, the US State Department's special representative for Iran, says Washington is in talks with at least two other companies that have expressed interest in sending food and medicine through a humanitarian channel operating in Switzerland.

Reuters news agency, citing Iran's special representative at the US State Department, reports that companies based in Switzerland are interested in participating in the channel to send humanitarian items to Iran. The humanitarian channel, known as SHTA, which will be under the supervision of the US Treasury, began operating in Switzerland on January 30, 2020 to export medicine and medical equipment, agricultural and food items exempt from US sanctions to Iran.

Permission to send the first shipment of medicines, including cancer treatment drugs and drugs needed for organ transplants, worth $2.55 million, was issued to Iran on January 27.

Brian Hook told reporters on Thursday, February 20, that more and more companies in Switzerland are showing interest in the channel. He did not provide further details or name the companies. Under the SHETA mechanism, companies based in Switzerland have a guaranteed banking channel to receive export funds.

Geneva-based bank BCP and pharmaceutical company Novartis initiated this new mechanism.

Brian Hook announced the willingness of more companies to participate in this mechanism, while Abbas Mousavi, spokesman for the Iranian Foreign Ministry, announced that the country does not recognize anything called a humanitarian channel or something similar: "We do not recognize sanctions. Medicine and food should not have been sanctioned in order to set up that channel. We believe that the Americans extended the cruel sanctions to medicine as well."

After the Swiss ambassador to Tehran announced the import of 180,000 packages of organ transplant medicine to Iran, Abdolnaser Hemmati, the director general of the Central Bank of Iran, announced that the total import of medicine into the country was 2,000 times the relevant import and called the relevant channel a "pharmaceutical show."

He said on February 4: "The very announcement of the US issuing a license to import medicine and medical equipment shows that, despite the US claim that medicine and humanitarian items are not being sanctioned, these items have actually been sanctioned by the US, otherwise they would not need a license."

Source: DW