U.S. sanctions deprive Iranian women of life-saving medicine: Iranian spokesman

TEHRAN, Oct. 11 (Xinhua) -- Iran's government spokesman said Tuesday that the U.S. sanctions which deprived Iran of raw materials needed for producing life-saving medicine exposed its hypocrisy in claiming to be advocating for Iranian women in the wake of Mahsa Amini's death.

Ali Bahadori Jahromi's remarks came during a weekly press conference in Tehran, according to official news agency IRNA.

Speaking of recent "meddlesome" remarks and measures taken by some Western countries following the death of Amini, a 22-year-old Iranian woman, Jahromi said these moves aimed at "inciting riots" in Iran in the guise of supporting the country's women and revealed these countries' double standards.

Over the past few weeks, "we have witnessed double-standard behaviors by (some) Western states," he said, adding the "inhumane" Western measures still deny Iranians access to essential medicines.

Meanwhile, they even allowed a female Iranian ambassador to be threatened by an assailant holding a "cold weapon" in a European country, indicating that they are even incapable of ensuring the security of Iran's envoy.

Jahromi was referring to an attack on Friday on Iran's Embassy's premises in the Danish capital of Copenhagen, where Iranian ambassador Afsaneh Nadipour and other employees were threatened, and vehicles were damaged.

Jahromi added U.S. withdrawal from a 2015 nuclear deal between Iran and world powers and reimposed sanctions on Iran had made the Iranian government more determined to defend its people's rights and remove the sanctions.

Protests over Amini's death, who died in a Tehran hospital a few days after collapsing at a police station, erupted across Iran, first in her native province of Kurdestan before spreading to several other cities including the capital.

The Iranian Legal Medicine Organization said on Friday that Amini's death was not a result of alleged blows to her head or vital organs, but an illness, semi-official Tasnim news agency reported.

The U.S. sanctions against Iran have intensified since 2018, the year when Washington pulled out of the nuclear deal.

Although the United States claims that humanitarian items, including medicine and foodstuff, are not included in the sanctions list, its embargoes on Iran's oil exports and banking sector have, in practice, prevented the country from importing such goods.