The decision appears to be the result of the worldview of Khamenei, Iran\u2019s highest political and religious authority. Khamenei is deeply mistrustful of the United States and other Western countries and has cited unfounded conspiracy theories about the coronavirus’s origins since the early weeks of the outbreak in Iran. The ban also highlights Tehran\u2019s tense ties with Washington, which have deteriorated since U.S. President Donald Trump left the 2015 nuclear deal and reimposed crippling sanctions.<\/p>\n
Speaking on January 8, Khamenei claimed that Western companies want to test their vaccines on Iranians.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf their Pfizer company can produce vaccines, why don\u2019t they use it themselves so that they don\u2019t have so many dead? The same applies to Britain,” Khamenei said.<\/p>\n
![\"Iranian](\"https:\/\/gdb.rferl.org\/cd454879-912c-45ba-861e-c3f801465a35_w250_r0_s.jpg\")
<\/div>\n<\/div>\nIranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei — who has his own, U.S.-educated physician — has banned imports of U.S. and other Western COVID-10 vaccines.<\/span><\/div>\n He meanwhile failed to acknowledge that such vaccines had already been deployed in Western countries, where a number of national leaders have been among the first to receive them in an effort to instill public confidence.<\/p>\n “Our people will not be a testing device for vaccine manufacturing companies,” the Iranian leader said. His country will purchase \u201csafe foreign\u201d vaccines, he said, without providing details.<\/p>\n Meanwhile, Iranian health authorities have promoted the possible import of vaccines from India, China, or Russia, and reportedly even agreed to allow a Cuban vaccine candidate to be tested on Iranians.<\/p>\n Ali Vaez, director of the International Crisis Group’s (ICG) Iran Project, says the ban \u201cis the triumph of ideology over common sense.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s not just a reckless politicization of the Iranian people\u2019s well-being, but an ill-advised political move,\u201d Vaez told RFE\/RL.<\/p>\n Early in the outbreak, in March, Khamenei dismissed an offer of assistance by the Trump administration, which has refused to ease sanctions despite the pandemic and calls for such a move from UN officials, some U.S. lawmakers, and others. Khamenei also went so far as to suggest — without citing evidence — that the coronavirus that has now killed nearly 400,000 Americans might have been manufactured by the United States.<\/p>\n Iranian officials have complained that the sanctions have hampered their efforts to contain the crisis.<\/p>\n Mourners attend the funeral of a man who died from COVID-19 at a cemetery on the outskirts of the Iranian city of Ghaemshahr on December 16. Officially, the disease has killed more than 56,000 Iranians.<\/span><\/div>\n Khamenei\u2019s ban followed a December 28 announcement by the Iranian Red Crescent Society (IRCS) that a group of U.S.-based philanthropists had donated 150,000 doses of a Pfizer\/BioNTech vaccine that were supposed to be transferred to Iran within three weeks.<\/p>\n Following Khamenei\u2019s ban, an IRCS spokesman said the plan had been dropped.<\/p>\n Saeid Golkar, a senior fellow on Iran policy at the Chicago Council on Global Affairs, called the ban \u201canother example of [Khamenei’s] micromanagement and intervention\u201d in the everyday lives of citizens.<\/p>\n \u201cAyatollah Khamenei makes this inefficient and ultimately authoritarian regime more ineffective,\u201d Golkar told RFE\/RL.<\/p>\n Since Khamenei\u2019s public announcement of the ban, government officials have fallen in line by criticizing Western vaccines.<\/p>\n President Hassan Rohani said on January 9 that \u201csome companies wanted to test their products on our people,\u201d without getting into specifics.<\/p>\n The hard-line parliament on January 11 echoed support for a ban on Western-made vaccines. In doing so, it appeared to fabricate evidence for such a move.<\/p>\n “Due to evidence of shock, side effects, and even deaths in some cases after injecting the vaccines, including those from Pfizer, the government should ban the import of vaccines produced by American, British, and French companies,” 200 of the 290 parliament members said in a statement.<\/p>\n Iranian officials had previously suggested that the country did not have the required infrastructure to handle the Pfizer vaccine, which must be stored at extremely low temperatures, and also suggested it was too expensive.<\/p>\n Hard-liners have made similarly unfounded claims that Western vaccines can cause serious health issues such as cancer and infertility, or even turn Iranians into robots.<\/p>\n An official with the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC) claimed, inexplicably, that companies that produce COVID-19 vaccines are working to reduce the world\u2019s population by 20 percent.<\/p>\n \u201cThere is evidence that these institutions have themselves manipulated and infected the virus,\u201d deputy IRGC coordinator Mohammad Reza Naghdi said.<\/p>\n A former IRGC commander claimed this week that some Western companies inject global-positioning technology into people\u2019s bodies via vaccines to control them.<\/p>\n \u201cThey want to control us to the point that we become Ironmen,\u201d Hossein Kanani Moghadam was quoted by Iranian media as saying.<\/p>\n Medical experts have said that there is no basis for the anti-Western vaccine claims and warned that Iran’s ban could complicate its people\u2019s timely access to COVID-19 preventatives.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s an ideological decision. It\u2019s not based on science,\u201d Tehran-based psychiatrist Hessam Firouzi told RFE\/RL\u2019s Radio Farda.<\/p>\n U.S. President-elect Joe Biden receives his second dose of the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine against COVID-19 in Delaware on January 11. A number of Western leaders have been among the first to receive vaccines in an effort to instill public confidence.<\/span><\/div>\n \u201cWe shouldn\u2019t ban medicine from some countries because we\u2019re having problems with them,\u201d Firouzi said, adding that Western medicine and vaccines are routinely used in Iran.<\/p>\n In a letter to Rohani, Iran\u2019s Medical Council called for the purchase of effective vaccines based \u201con a scientific approach\u201d and \u201cfree from political issues\u201d to inoculate vulnerable groups as quickly as possible.<\/p>\n The council said separately that 200 Iranian doctors have died of COVID-19 and that more than 3,000 have emigrated since the outbreak in Iran began.<\/p>\n Many Iranians took to Twitter to criticize the ban.<\/p>\n![\"Mourners](\"https:\/\/gdb.rferl.org\/f3eca0b2-d763-4730-9696-eb98ecc62933_w250_r0_s.jpg\")
<\/div>\n<\/div>\nWhat Are Supporters Of The Ban Saying?<\/big><\/strong><\/h3>\n
What Are Opponents Of The Ban Saying?<\/big><\/strong><\/h3>\n
![\"U.S.](\"https:\/\/gdb.rferl.org\/aa7e62fb-55e0-4f28-adf1-c04708d1cb27_w250_r0_s.jpg\")
<\/div>\n<\/div>\n