TEHRAN (Iran News) – Iranian President Hassan Rouhani said discussions are underway at the United Nations Security Council (UNSC) to pass a resolution to lift all sanctions under the present circumstances that the world is grappling with the coronavirus pandemic.

Speaking at a cabinet session on Wednesday, Rouhani added they are actively pursuing sanctions issues at the UN amid coronavirus crisis.

Commenting on his phone conversation with an official of a non-permanent member state of the Security Council, the president quoted him as saying, “Our plan is ready and we intend to present it to the Security Council.”

Rouhani continued, “Efforts are focused on releasing Iran’s frozen assets in other countries under the current circumstances. Good steps are being taken to this end.”

In May 2018, President Donald Trump pulled the US out of the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), signed between Iran and the P5+1 in July 2015, and reimposed Washington’s unilateral sanctions on Tehran. To comply with the sanctions, which have targeted mainly Iran’s oil and banking sector, a number of countries froze the money they would send to Iran under normal circumstances as payments for their imports. The sanctions have also impeded the delivery of drugs, medical equipment and humanitarian aid to Iran while the country is in a fight against the coronavirus spread.

In addition, Rouhani said, the Iranian Ministry of Foreign Affairs has also initiated a good move aimed at changing the global public opinion and convincing the world to “say no to sanctions”.

The coronavirus, which causes a respiratory disease, emerged in the central Chinese city of Wuhan in Hubei Province late last year and is currently affecting a large number of countries and territories across the globe. It has infected and killed people in a large number of countries.

On Wednesday, the speaker of Iran’s Health Ministry, Kianoush Jahanpour, said the total number of infections has reached 27,017 in the country, according to IRNA.

With 143 new deaths in the past 24 hours, the death toll from the virus has reached 2,077, he added, regretting that 2,206 new cases have been identified in the past 24 hours. Jahanpour put the number of the recovered patients at 9,625.