Trump Offers Iran Ventilators Amid Coronavirus Pandemic

WASHINGTON (UrduPoint News / Sputnik - 19th April, 2020) US President Donald Trump says the United States can give Iran ventilators to help treat COVID-19 patients.

"When I came in Iran was a terror," Trump said at the Saturday White House Coronavirus Task Force briefing, adding "Iran is a much different country than it was, when I first came in, Iran was going to take over the entire middle East, right now they just want to survive, they are having protests every week, they are loaded up with the plague, which I don't want, I've offered to help them if they want, if they need ventilators, which they do, I would send them ventilators, we have thousands of excess ventilators."

Iran, a country that is among the worst hit by the COVID-19 pandemic, has repeatedly said that US sanctions have hindered Tehran's efforts to combat the spread of the coronavirus and prevented the imports of essential medical goods to respond to the pandemic.

According to the latest data from Iran's health officials, the country has over 80,800 confirmed coronavirus cases and its death toll from COVID-19 has surpassed 5,000. Iran has become the epicenter of the coronavirus infection in its region, with most COVID-19 clusters in neighboring Middle Eastern countries tracing their first cases back to Iran.

In late March, permanent United Nations representatives of Russia, China, Syria, Cuba, North Korea, Iran, Nicaragua, and Venezuela sent a letter to UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres calling for the lifting of unilateral sanctions imposed on several countries amid the COVID-19 pandemic. A Russia-drafted General Assembly resolution calling for solidarity and global sanctions relief was blocked by the United States, the United Kingdom, the European Union and Georgia.