Iran says ready to export DNA testing kits to U.S.

TEHRAN, June 25 (Xinhua) -- Iran's top forensic official said on Sunday that the country is ready to export its domestically-developed DNA testing kits to other countries, including the United States.

President of Iran Legal Medical Organization Abbas Masjedi made the remarks when unveiling a number of new medical devices at a conference in the capital Tehran, according to Mizan news agency affiliated with Iran's judiciary.

"Our message to the United States is that if its people need the DNA testing kits of Iran Legal Medical Organization, they can submit their requests to related Iranian authorities, and we will definitely supply the product to them in proportion to their needs, as we, under no circumstances, let political issues and sanctions overshadow peoples' health," he said.

Iran is only five products away from achieving full self-sufficiency in manufacturing genetic laboratories' devices, and they will be unveiled within a year, Masjedi noted.

He stressed that because of the imposition of the U.S. "cruel" sanctions on Iran, his organization was faced with significant periodic shortages in materials and devices over the past years.

Speaking at the same conference, Iranian Judiciary Chief Gholamhossein Mohseni-Ejei said Iran is currently among the world's advanced states in terms of employing modern technologies in the field of forensic medicine despite the so-called "paralysing" sanctions against the country.

Iran has been under U.S. unilateral sanctions for the past four decades.

The sanctions intensified following the U.S. unilateral withdrawal from a 2015 nuclear deal in May 2018, formally known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action.

Although the United States claimed that humanitarian items, including medicine and foodstuffs, 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.