Iran's Ambassador to Cuba: Countries under US Sanctions Must Cooperate

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In an interview with Al Mayadeen, the Iranian ambassador to Cuba, Mohammad Hadi Sobhani, confirmed that the relations between Iran and Cuba go back more than 40 years and "constitute a model for relations between independent countries."

He added that given their common political positions, determination, and will of the leaders in the two countries, the bilateral relations have always headed towards development, noting that the areas of cooperation between the two countries are in the fields of biotechnology, and health and safety, including medicines and vaccines.

Sobhani pointed out that cooperation between Iran and Cuba regarding vaccines does not depend only on the COVID-19 virus, but rather goes back to 20 years ago.

The Iranian ambassador noted that during the recent pandemic, Cuba was able to develop five types of vaccines against the Coronavirus, some of which are in production, and it is the first Latin country that managed to produce the vaccine.

Iranian aid to Cuba

The ambassador acknowledged Iran's assistance, at a time when European countries did not and the US did only after Iran helped Cuba with the production of the vaccine. 

Sobhani indicated that cooperation continued to produce an anti-coronavirus vaccine, and its production techniques were transferred to Iran, where production has already begun.

In response to a question about how countries such as Cuba and Iran, under the US embargo and economic sanctions, were able to produce such a vaccine, he replied that "global imperialism desires to control and dominate all countries, so countries that are subject to US sanctions can cooperate based on their capabilities."

He added, “the US may impose sanctions against us, but in return, we can build good political, economic, commercial, cultural, scientific and research relations.”