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Source: https://www.fdd.org/analysis/2020/10/14/corruption-causing-medicine-shortages-in-iran/
Corruption, Not Sanctions, Is Causing Medicine Shortages in Iran
(Foundation for Defense of Democracies) Alireza Nader - Iranian President Hassan Rouhani says new U.S. sanctions are part of a deliberate U.S. effort to cause shortages of food and medicine. Yet Health Minister Saeed Namaki explained that shortages are due to selling drugs on the black market, "hoarding medicines in warehouses, and distributing counterfeit drugs." The health minister also blasted "a highly complicated network" within the government responsible for systemic corruption and theft, including the hoarding of "millions of antiviral masks." In 2019, Rouhani's chief of staff admitted that more than $1 billion reserved for the import of medicine and essential goods had just "disappeared." The writer is a senior fellow at FDD.