Iran finds way to buy Covid vaccine despite US sanctions

Iran has found a way to buy coronavirus vaccines despite U.S. sanctions, in a breakthrough for the country fighting the worst outbreak of the virus in the Middle East.

The central bank received an agreement from an unidentified bank to transfer a 200 million-euro ($244 million) payment for a vaccine, Central Bank Governor Abdolnaser Hemmati said on Thursday in an Instagram post, without giving further details of the payment mechanism or the vaccine supplier.

With around 1.2 million people infected and over 54,000 dead, Iran’s coronavirus outbreak is the worst in the region, but officials have previously said their ability to fight it is hampered by sanctions.

Iran has been trying to use its foreign currency reserves held abroad to pay for the vaccine via the World Health Organization’s COVAX facility, but was told by countries including South Korea that the money risks being seized or blocked, Hemmati said earlier this month.

The bank that has now agreed to transfer the money is not South Korea’s central bank, Hemmati said.