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.

The post Rouhani: UNSC seeks to relieve sanctions amid coronavirus appeared first on Iran News Daily.

“I think that all of us who are not experts initially underestimated the coronavirus,“ Ursula von der Leyen, EU commission chief, told Germany’s Bild newspaper in an interview addressing political leaders’ view of the situation.

“But now it is clear that this is a virus that will keep us busy for a long time yet.”

“We understand that measures that seemed drastic two or three weeks ago, need to be taken now,“ she added, AFP reported.

The coronavirus outbreak, which first emerged in China late last year, has quickly marched across the globe, infecting nearly 200,000 people and killing 7,900 as governments scramble to contain it.

But von der Leyen rejected the language of French president Emmanuel Macron, who likened the outbreak to war this week, and ordered almost the entire population to stay at home for at least two weeks.

“I will not personally use that term but I understand the motivation of the French president as the coronavirus is a worrying enemy.”

Germany’s economy minister Peter Altmaier (pix) said the United States under Donald Trump had taken the threat of the virus even more lightly.

“The outbreak of the crisis was probably underestimated even more so in the US than in some countries in Europe,“ Peter Altmaier told Germany’s regional press group, Funke.

“That is the reason we very much hope that the US will manage to control the situation, also in our own interest,“ he added.

“No-one hopes that the US economy would fall into an uncontrolled recession.”

The post Leaders ‘Underestimated’ Coronavirus: EU Commission Chief appeared first on Iran News Daily.

According To Iran News, The Pentagon shrunk the size of its delegation traveling to the Singapore Airshow and US defense firm Lockheed Martin said it would not attend, as the impact of the coronavirus has reduced participation in the event.

However, Boeing told CNBC on Saturday that it still plans to attend the airshow and will be “an active participant.”

Undersecretary of Defense Ellen Lord will no longer attend the event “due to extenuating circumstances,” Lieutenant Colonel Mike Andrews said in a statement.

Lord is the Pentagon’s chief weapons buyer and was the Pentagon’s lead representative at the event. Other Pentagon leaders including uniformed military officials plan to attend.

Lockheed Martin became the first major US defense company to announce it will not attend the airshow due to the coronavirus.

“We determined this was in the best interest of our employees and aligned with the US Department of Defense’s decision to reduce its presence,” Lockheed said in a statement, Reuters reported.

The airshow will continue next week, but organizers might look to limit public visitors, a Singaporean official said on Friday, as Singapore reported three more coronavirus cases that authorities have not yet linked to previous infections or travel to China.

The new cases take Singapore’s virus tally to 33 with the alert level raised to orange, denoting the disease is severe and passes easily from person-to-person. Red – the highest alert level – indicates it is spreading widely.

The trade portion of the airshow, held every two years, is due to begin on Feb. 11.

Business jet manufacturers Bombardier, Textron and General Dynamics’ Gulfstream division are also among those to have pulled out of the airshow.

The post Lockheed Martin Drops Out of Singapore Airshow over Coronavirus Concerns appeared first on Iran News Daily.