Save the Kids Official Statement – Iran

March 29, 2020

When the US committed an act of war on Iraqi soil by executing a foreign leader–General Soleman of the Iranian military, they violated not only international treat (e.g., Article 51 of the UN charter) but also US constitution as Executive Order 11905 signed on February 18, 1976, by President Gerald R. Ford as an attempt to reform the United States Intelligence Community, improve oversight on foreign intelligence activities, and ban political assassinations. Iran responded by bombing US military bases devoid of the same degree of mortality and omnibus crime violation. Despite this reasonably peaceful response, sanctions against Iran and by extension–its people have been brought to a crippled level burgeoning on war crimes.

During the COVID-19 pandemic, sanctions have made it virtually impossible to protect the people of Iran as medications that prevent the complications associated with coronavirus like as flu and cold medicine are sparse and virtually nonexistent. Save the Kids demands that the US lifts all sanctions against the civilians of Iran that have prevented them from accumulating sufficient medical provisions and food and have creating financial hardships simply to acquire these common household items that many US citizens take for granted. This sort of passive imperialism is a war crime that is augmented by the current malaise associated with the coronavirus. Leaving millions of Iranians left to perish by denying financial access to medication is the equivalent of a political death sentence.

Arash Daneshzadeh
Director of Publications, Save the Kids
Editor, Transformative Justice Journal