WASHINGTON –The U.S. Department of the Treasury today announced the completion of initial financial transactions benefitting Iranian medical patients through a humanitarian channel in Switzerland. Iranian cancer and transplant patients are receiving treatments through this channel, which is subject to strict due diligence measures to avoid misuse by the Iranian regime. The successful completion of these transactions provides a model for facilitating further humanitarian exports to Iran. Efforts to establish this humanitarian channel, in coordination with the State Department, were previously announced on October 25, 2019.
“The United States is determined to ensure the Iranian people have access to food, life-saving medicines, and other humanitarian goods, despite the regime’s economic mismanagement and wasteful funding of malign activities across the region,” said Secretary Steven T. Mnuchin. “This Administration has full confidence that, together with our partners abroad, this mechanism will improve the flow of humanitarian goods to the Iranian people. Humanitarian transactions are currently allowed under our sanctions programs, and we encourage companies to use this humanitarian mechanism. We would like to thank the Swiss authorities for working with us.”
The United States has a consistent policy of maintaining broad exceptions and authorizations allowing for the sale of agricultural commodities, food, medicine, and medical devices to Iran. For more information on the humanitarian mechanism and recommended measures for improving transparency for trade with Iran that is excepted from U.S. sanctions, please refer to the guidance published on the Treasury’s website on October 25, 2019.
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