Reuters - Iran called on Monday for global solidarity against the pandemic, but said that unilateral sanctions are “inhumane” and causing “unnecessary suffering and pain” for its population.

“The US must be held to account for its intensifying unilateral sanctions against Iran and other affected nations,” Saeed Namaki, Iran’s health minister, said in an address to the World Health Organization’s annual assembly being held online.

Alex Azar, U.S. Secretary of Health and Human Services, addressed the two-day forum but did not respond to Iran’s allegations.

Reporting by Stephanie Nebehay and Emma Farge