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Iran Says Iraq to Release $125 Mln of Frozen Funds for Vaccines

A member of the Imam Khomeini Hospital medical personnel receives a dose of Russia’s Sputnik V vaccine against the coronavirus disease (COVID-19), in Tehran, Iran February 9, 2021. (Reuters)
A member of the Imam Khomeini Hospital medical personnel receives a dose of Russia’s Sputnik V vaccine against the coronavirus disease (COVID-19), in Tehran, Iran February 9, 2021. (Reuters)
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Iran Says Iraq to Release $125 Mln of Frozen Funds for Vaccines

A member of the Imam Khomeini Hospital medical personnel receives a dose of Russia’s Sputnik V vaccine against the coronavirus disease (COVID-19), in Tehran, Iran February 9, 2021. (Reuters)
A member of the Imam Khomeini Hospital medical personnel receives a dose of Russia’s Sputnik V vaccine against the coronavirus disease (COVID-19), in Tehran, Iran February 9, 2021. (Reuters)

Iraq has agreed to transfer $125 million of frozen Iranian funds to a European bank for the purchase of 16 million COVID-19 vaccine doses, Iranian Energy Minister Reza Ardakanian was quoted as saying by state media on Saturday.

Iran, the hardest hit Middle Eastern country by COVID-19, has complained that US sanctions were preventing it from making payments to buy vaccines.

Ardakanian said the payments would go towards the purchase of vaccines from the World Health Organization (WHO) - sponsored global COVAX vaccine-sharing plan, state news agency IRNA reported.

There was no immediate confirmation by Iraqi officials of the reported release of Iran’s funds for the purchase of vaccines, according to Reuters.

While holding talks with world powers in Vienna to revive its 2015 nuclear accord, Tehran has demanded the release of $20 billion of its oil revenue it says has been frozen in countries such as Iraq, South Korea and China due to US sanctions since 2018.

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1 Dead as Russia Strikes Ukraine with Drones, Missiles

03 October 2024, Ukraine, Kharkiv: Firefighters put out fire in a residential building damaged by a Russian guided missile strike. Photo: -/Ukrinform/dpa
03 October 2024, Ukraine, Kharkiv: Firefighters put out fire in a residential building damaged by a Russian guided missile strike. Photo: -/Ukrinform/dpa
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1 Dead as Russia Strikes Ukraine with Drones, Missiles

03 October 2024, Ukraine, Kharkiv: Firefighters put out fire in a residential building damaged by a Russian guided missile strike. Photo: -/Ukrinform/dpa
03 October 2024, Ukraine, Kharkiv: Firefighters put out fire in a residential building damaged by a Russian guided missile strike. Photo: -/Ukrinform/dpa

One person has died after Russian forces attacked Ukraine overnight with 87 Shahed drones and four different types of missiles, officials said Sunday.
A 49-year-old man was killed in the Kharkiv region after his car was hit by a drone, said regional Gov. Oleh Syniehubov. A gas pipeline was also damaged and a warehouse set alight in the city of Odesa, Ukrainian officials reported.
Ukraine’s air force said in a statement that air defenses had destroyed 56 of the 87 drones and two missiles over 14 Ukrainian regions, including the capital, Kyiv.
Another 25 drones disappeared from radar “presumably as a result of anti-aircraft missile defense,” it said.

Kyiv city military administrator Serhiy Popko said air defenses destroyed all the drones that had been aimed at the capital. No injuries were reported.
Air raid alerts for Kyiv and the surrounding region were announced three times throughout the night, totaling more than five hours, Popko added.
The barrage comes a day after Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said Saturday that he will present his “victory plan” at the Oct. 12 meeting of the Ramstein group of nations that supplies arms to Ukraine.
Zelenskyy presented his plan to US President Joe Biden in Washington last week. Its contents have not been made public but it is known that the plan includes Ukrainian membership in NATO and the provision of long-range missiles to strike inside Russia.
In a statement Sunday, the Ukrainian leader paid tribute to the country’s troops, which he also described as “preparing (for) the next Ramstein.”
“They demonstrate what Ukrainians are capable of when they have enough weapons and sufficient range,” he said in a statement on social media. “We will keep convincing our partners that our drones alone are not enough. More decisive steps are needed — and the end of this war will be closer.”