US, Iran Differ over Tehran’s Frozen Assets

A panel displays currency rates in a market in Tehran, November 29, 2021. (Reuters)
A panel displays currency rates in a market in Tehran, November 29, 2021. (Reuters)
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US, Iran Differ over Tehran’s Frozen Assets

A panel displays currency rates in a market in Tehran, November 29, 2021. (Reuters)
A panel displays currency rates in a market in Tehran, November 29, 2021. (Reuters)

Tehran accused the US administration of waging a “psychological war,” a day after Washington denied releasing $3.5 billion of Iran’s frozen funds abroad.

“The United States has not released any money to Iran. Any such report to the contrary is incorrect,” State Department spokesman Ned Price affirmed.

“We also understand that our partners have not transferred frozen funds to Iran, not even South Korea,” he stressed.

“And of course, the US has not authorized or approved any such frozen transfers to Iran. All of our current sanctions remain in effect. They will remain in effect until and unless we’re able to reach a diplomatic agreement,” in Vienna.

Price’s remarks, which coincide with a new round of talks in the Austrian capital, are part of a “psychological war” against Iran, state TV quoted an informed source as saying.

These remarks “will not affect what has actually happened,” the source added.

One of the countries will soon release the frozen assets under the sanctions imposed by Donald Trump’s administration on Iranian oil sales, deputy Foreign Minister for Economic Diplomacy Mehdi Safari said on Thursday.

He added that $3.5 billion of Iranian assets have been released, noting that the government had requested other countries to release larger numbers

“Fruitful negotiations were held in this regard,” Safari confirmed, while declining to reveal the amount discussed.

In mid-November, the Central Bank said one billion dollars from the released funds would be allotted for the import of “essential goods.”

Meanwhile, the Iranian rial currency dipped last week but remained above historic lows after news that talks with world powers to revive the 2015 Iran nuclear accord may have run into difficulties.

The US dollar was selling for as much as 302,200 rials on the unofficial market on Saturday, up from 294,000 on Friday.

In October 2020, the rial hit a record low of about 320,000 to a dollar as a drop in oil prices deepened the economic crisis in the country already reeling under US sanctions and the highest COVID-19 death toll in the Middle East.



UN Says 14 Million Children Did Not Receive a Single Vaccine in 2024

A mother holds her baby receiving a new malaria vaccine as part of a trial at the Walter Reed Project Research Center in Kombewa in Western Kenya on Oct. 30, 2009. (AP)
A mother holds her baby receiving a new malaria vaccine as part of a trial at the Walter Reed Project Research Center in Kombewa in Western Kenya on Oct. 30, 2009. (AP)
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UN Says 14 Million Children Did Not Receive a Single Vaccine in 2024

A mother holds her baby receiving a new malaria vaccine as part of a trial at the Walter Reed Project Research Center in Kombewa in Western Kenya on Oct. 30, 2009. (AP)
A mother holds her baby receiving a new malaria vaccine as part of a trial at the Walter Reed Project Research Center in Kombewa in Western Kenya on Oct. 30, 2009. (AP)

More than 14 million children did not receive a single vaccine last year — about the same number as the year before — according to UN health officials. Nine countries accounted for more than half of those unprotected children.

In their annual estimate of global vaccine coverage, released Tuesday, the World Health Organization and UNICEF said about 89% of children under one year old got a first dose of the diphtheria, tetanus and whooping cough vaccine in 2024, the same as in 2023. About 85% completed the three-dose series, up from 84% in 2023.

Officials acknowledged, however, that the collapse of international aid this year will make it more difficult to reduce the number of unprotected children.

In January, US President Trump withdrew the country from the WHO, froze nearly all humanitarian aid and later moved to close the US AID Agency. And last month, Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. said it was pulling the billions of dollars the US had previously pledged to the vaccines alliance Gavi, saying the group had “ignored the science.”

Kennedy, a longtime vaccine skeptic, has previously raised questions the diphtheria, tetanus and whooping cough vaccine, which has proven to be safe and effective after years of study and real-world use. Vaccines prevent 3.5 million to 5 million deaths a year, according to UN estimates.

“Drastic cuts in aid, coupled with misinformation about the safety of vaccines, threaten to unwind decades of progress,” said WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus.

UN experts said that access to vaccines remained “deeply unequal” and that conflict and humanitarian crises quickly unraveled progress; Sudan had the lowest reported coverage against diphtheria, tetanus and whooping cough.

The data showed that nine countries accounted for 52% of all children who missed out on immunizations entirely: Nigeria, India, Sudan, Congo, Ethiopia, Indonesia, Yemen, Afghanistan and Angola.

WHO and UNICEF said that coverage against measles rose slightly, with 76% of children worldwide receiving both vaccine doses. But experts say measles vaccine rates need to reach 95% to prevent outbreaks of the extremely contagious disease. WHO noted that 60 countries reported big measles outbreaks last year.

The US is now having its worst measles outbreak in more than three decades, while the disease has also surged across Europe, with 125,000 cases in 2024 — twice as many as the previous year, according to WHO.

Last week, British authorities reported a child died of measles in a Liverpool hospital. Health officials said that despite years of efforts to raise awareness, only about 84% of children in the UK are protected.

“It is hugely concerning, but not at all surprising, that we are continuing to see outbreaks of measles,” said Helen Bradford, a professor of children’s health at University College London.

“The only way to stop measles spreading is with vaccination,” she said in a statement. “It is never too late to be vaccinated — even as an adult.”