Announced in late January and declared operational a month later, the channel, known as the Swiss Humanitarian Trade Arrangement (SHTA), was supposed to ensure that “humanitarian goods continue to reach the Iranian people” as US Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin said on Feb. 27.

But it’s not happening—at a time when, according to Johns Hopkins University, the novel coronavirus has infected more than 104,000 Iranians and killed over 6,500.

“No transactions have yet been carried out. Unfortunately, this whole process has been slower than expected because of the COVID-19 pandemic,” said Fabian Maienfisch, a spokesman for Switzerland’s State Secretariat for Economic Affairs (SECO), which oversees the channel, the Daily Beast reported.

The moribund state of the channel contrasts with the fanfare with which the Trump administration announced it. To show that the so-called “maximum pressure” campaign is not consigning Iranians to their fate during the pandemic, US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said on March 17, “We have an open humanitarian channel to facilitate legitimate transactions even while ensuring our maximum pressure campaign denies …”

Knowledgeable observers say the way the channel is structured places substantial burdens in the way of companies looking to sell Iran humanitarian supplies.

In an indication of the bureaucracy involved in the SHTA, Maienfisch said, “Swiss export and trade companies that are interested in participating are currently collecting the necessary information and documents to be submitted to SECO.”

The Treasury Department declined to comment beyond pointing to its Feb. 27 announcement that the SHTA channel is operational.

“It’s unfortunate that the Iranian government turned down our offer of humanitarian assistance for COVID-19. Our priority has been to stand with the Iranian people–and this offer is still on the table,” a State Department spokesperson claimed.

At least one concern critics of “maximum pressure” had about the humanitarian-trade channel appears not to have manifested. It had been unclear from the SHTA’s establishment if Iran could transfer its foreign currency reserves held in other banks into BCP for the purchase of medical goods and food.

Maienfisch clarified that Iran can put money it’s got outside BCP into the Swiss bank. “We are currently working on transfers to put additional funds into the SHTA with support from the US side. There is nothing to clarify, as the need to regularly replenish the funds at BCP is understood and accepted by all parties involved,” he said.

The comments prove statements by the Iranian government saying that US officials have been disingenuous in claiming that Iran’s humanitarian needs are exempt from the harsh regime of sanctions imposed on the country.

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“Medicine and foodstuffs were never subject to sanctions in the first place so that they can now create a channel with such a show,” Foreign Ministry spokesman Abbas Mousavi said on Monday at a press conference.

“We do not recognize any such so-called humanitarian channel,” Mousavi said, according to Press TV.

U.S. President Donald Trump withdrew Washington from the 2015 nuclear deal, known as the JCPOA, in May 2018 and restored the previous sanctions against Iran and ordered new ones.

Tehran has described the U.S. government’s sanctions as “economic war” and “economic terrorism”.

Iran says sanctions on its central bank will prevent it from providing medicine to its citizens.

Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif said in late 2019 that the United States’ sanctions and economic war on Iran have targeted ordinary people’s health and livelihood.

“There was a time when such warfare was used to simply limit the activities of some countries. However, new warfare of the United States and what Trump has called the ‘economic war’ have targeted the ordinary people’s livelihood and health,” the chief diplomat lamented.

Health Minister Saeed Namaki said back in December 2019 that the United States lies when it says pharmaceuticals and medical equipment are not subject to its sanctions on Iran.

Meanwhile, under Washington’s pressure, Britain, France, and Germany have stopped their transactions with the Islamic Republic.

However, on Thursday, Switzerland launched the so-called Swiss Humanitarian Trade Arrangement (SHTA), claiming it was aimed at facilitating the medicine trade, reportedly using the Central Bank of Iran’s credits. Swiss officials have, however, refused to clarify how such transactions would continue if the CBI ran out of credit with Swiss banks.

Back in October 2018, The Hague-based International Court of Justice? the UN’s principal judicial body issued a ruling ordering the U.S. to halt its unilateral sanctions on “humanitarian” supplies to Iran. The verdict came following a lawsuit lodged by Iran in July of the same year.

In his Monday press conference, Mousavi said Washington is well aware that as per the ruling, it bears an obligation not to block such transactions, adding that these “conditional waivers” from the sanctions will not result in the U.S. war crimes passing into oblivion.

The medicine supplies, he added, were bound to enter the country a year and a half ago, but their imports were blocked by U.S. obstructionism.

The Swiss company tasked with facilitating the transactions “has been paid to do so,” he said, noting, “Our expectations far exceed such measures. And their obligations are hundreds of times more than what they are offering.”

He added that the Islamic Republic welcomes all efforts that are aimed at reducing the pressure faced by the country, but still Switzerland’s initiation of the SHTA, falls short of the expectations.

Zarif also said on Monday that the Swiss humanitarian channel is insufficient, drawing attention to the ICJ ruling in this regard.

The top diplomat noted that the U.S. keeps pursuing the policy of “maximum pressure” and denying Iran the financial channels that enable it to import medicine.

“This is a small step and we thank the Swiss government for its efforts … but this channel is not a sign of America’s goodwill at all,” he added.

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