South Korea to provide 1 million doses of AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccine to Iran: Report

South Korean foreign ministry on Monday, 25 October, announced that the nation will soon offer one million doses of the AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccine to Iran on humanitarian grounds. According to Yohnap News Agency, the ministry said that the vaccines will be delivered to Iran on Wednesday to help the Middle Eastern nation’s COVID-19 vaccination campaign. 

The vaccination drive in Iran has lately been increased, and it currently administers one million shots each day. Both dosages have been given to 20% of the population thus far. The outbreak, however, continues to have a significant impact on the nation's unvaccinated community.

Apart from South Korea, Iran has also received COVID-19 vaccines from India and Italy. Earlier this month, the government of India gifted one million doses of the made-in-India COVAXIN vaccine to Iran, under the ‘Vaccine Maitri’ initiative taken by the Indian government. Italy has also provided 1.2 million doses of the AstraZeneca vaccination to Iran through the COVAX facility. 

Iran-South Korea relations 

Meanwhile, it is to mention that the latest development comes amid a time when diplomatic relations between South Korea and Iran remain frayed over frozen Iranian assets under US sanctions and ongoing efforts to restore the 2015 Iranian nuclear agreement. As per the Korean news agency, earlier, South Korea’s Foreign Minister Chung Eui-yong had phone talks with his Iranian counterpart. Back then, he had vowed efforts to resolve the issue of Tehran’s frozen funds and to cooperate with Iran to help the country overcome the humanitarian crisis stemming from the COVID-19 pandemic. 

Iran Foreign Minister Hossein Amir Abdollahian, on the other hand, had called for ending the “current impasse created by following the path drawn by the US” so that the Islamic Republic of Iran can use them to buy essential items such as medicines. The relations between Tehran and Seoul have been strained since the US reimposed tough sanctions on Iran and banned countries, including major Asian customers, from buying its petroleum. Iran has said that it has at least $7 billion from oil sales trapped in South Korea and the funds are needed to purchase humanitarian goods, including the coronavirus vaccine. Seoul, on the other hand, in April said that it had resolved the dispute over $7 billion blocked from Iran, but was waiting for the US green light.

South Korea and other US partners had begrudgingly stopped buying oil from Iran after former US President Donald Trump imposed a unilateral embargo with threats to punish anyone who buys from Tehran. Now, President Joe Biden favours returning the 2015 accord. But Iran has been calling for an end to the US sanctions and said that the Islamic Republic is keen on having large scale political-economic engagements with the world. 

Newly-minted Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi has even asserted that “nukes have no place in our defence doctrine and deterrence policy. Our country’s strategic policy is to consider the production and stockpiling of atomic weapons as forbidden”. 

(Image: AP)