Sanctions must be lifted from Iran, says Shah Mahmood

Pakistan Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi on Friday said Sanctions must be lifted from Iran.

The foreign minister tweeted: “The entire global community is fighting an unprecedented pandemic. We must, as leaders at the time of such great challenge & difficulty, show utmost compassion. Sanctions must be lifted against Iran, in this moment of peril so that it can use its resources to save precious human lives.”

Shah Mahmood Qureshi who is under self-imposed isolation after his recent visit to China amid the global coronavirus pandemic took to Twitter on Friday to show solidarity with neighboring Iran.

The entire global community is fighting an unprecedented pandemic.We must, as leaders at time of such great challenge & difficulty, show utmost compassion. Sanctions must be lifted against Iran, in this moment of peril so that it can use its resources to save precious human lives

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— Shah Mahmood Qureshi (@SMQureshiPTI) March 20, 2020

The health ministry of Iran has stated that the deadly coronavirus kills at least one person every 10 minutes in Iran,

The reason for this is the shortage that force medics to treat the sick without protective gear, while families say they are burying their loved ones in makeshift pits.

The overall coronavirus death toll in Iran has increased to 1,284 with the emergence of 149 new fatalities.

Nearly 18,500 infected, the highest death toll outside of China and Italy.

The World Health Organisation, however, has warned Iran’s toll potentially five times higher as the testing restricted to the “most severe cases”.

The authorities have also struggled to enforce measures like quarantine and self-isolation.

The government decided to ban citizens from leaving home for seven days, and any violation will involve a fine of up to 14,400 new shekels ($3,945s) and imprisonment of up to six months.

Israel became the second worst-hit country in the Middle East with a total of 677 confirmed cases.