Germany has called on its banks to authorize financial transactions with Iranian banks in a bid to ease restrictions on the sale of much-needed medicines to Iran.

In a letter carried in the Sunday issue of Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, the German Foreign Ministry called on German banks to stop blocking transactions with Iranian banks for medicine sales.

The letter has been sent by German Foreign Ministry diplomat Emily Haber to President of the Federal Association of German Cooperative Banks (BVR) Uwe Frohlich.

The letter asked German banks to “look into how they can facilitate transactions between Germany and Iran for humanitarian purposes.”


“Obviously some German banks are refusing to process these transactions, with reference to the political situation and EU sanctions,” Haber wrote.

Iranian health authorities say recent illegal sanctions, imposed by the US and the EU, have made it impossible to obtain the medicines needed to treat some diseases.

A transplant surgeon recently told Press TV that the US-engineered sanctions against the Islamic Republic have caused a shortage of medicine in Iran, endangering the lives of many patients.

Millions of patients, suffering from diseases such as diabetes, kidney failure, hemophilia, multiple sclerosis, thalassemia, and leukemia, are affected by the sanctions.

The illegal US-engineered sanctions were imposed based on the unfounded accusation that Iran is pursuing non-civilian objectives in its nuclear energy program.

Iran rejects the allegation, arguing that as a committed signatory to Non-Proliferation Treaty and a member of International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), it has the right to use nuclear technology for peaceful purposes.

In addition, the IAEA has conducted numerous inspections of Iran's nuclear facilities but has never found any evidence showing that Iran's nuclear energy program has been diverted toward military objectives.
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News ID 183537