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12-04-2020
By SJA Jafri + Agencies + Bureau Reports
VATICAN CITY/ TEHRAN/ WASHINGTON: Pope Francis presided over the most solemn and noblest of all solemnities, the Easter Vigil, on Saturday evening in a near empty St Peter’s Basilica. Millions around the globe, however, joined the Vicar of Christ through television, radio, and other digital platforms, to hear the Easter proclamation resound once again in their hearts, in their homes, and in the entire world.
His homily focused on two gifts that the Risen Christ offers to every disciple of every age: hope and courage.
Earlier, the Vatican expressed sympathy with the Iranian people and talked to the US over draconian sanctions on the Islamic Republic amid the COVID-19 pandemic.
The Vatican’s Secretary of State Cardinal Pietro Parolin talked to US officials following a letter by head of Iran’s Islamic Seminaries Alireza Arafi to leader of the Roman Catholic Church Pope Francis.
In his letter circulated last week, Arafi expressed Iran’s sympathy over the victims of COVID-19 from “all religions and nations” and urged the “cooperation of all religious centers” to counter the pandemic, Press TV wrote on Saturday.
In the Vatican’s response to Arafi’s message, Cardinal Parolin wrote that “upon being informed of the details of the letter”, the Pope asked the cardinal to express “his spiritual sympathy with the Iranian people” and all victims of the disease on his behalf.
The Vatican’s letter added that Arafi had called on the Pope to act against the US sanctions targeting the Iranian people amid the pandemic.
Acting upon such details and such an understanding, the papacy contacted the United States’ ambassador to the UN, Kelly Craft, and informed them of the concerns of Iranian officials, urging attention to the matter, the letter read.
The letter, however, stopped short of condemning Washington’s criminal sanctions against the Iranian people as the country grapples with the COVID-19 pandemic.
Various international leaders, figures and groups have denounced Washington’s sanctions for hampering Iran’s coronavirus fight.
The sanctions, imposed on the country after Washington withdrew from the 2015 Iran nuclear deal in 2018, target much-needed humanitarian aid and related finances from reaching the country.
The bans come despite an International Court of Justice’s ruling banning Washington’s aid-related sanctions in 2018.
According to the latest figures released by Iran’s Health Ministry on Saturday, 70,029 Iranians have contracted the disease, 4,357 of whom have lost their lives and 41,947 people have also recovered.
With the COVID-19 pandemic pushing world governments to the edge in their attempts to contain the deadly disease, stark differences have emerged in how the United States the world’s largest economy – and Iran – under crippling sanctions – have managed the crisis.
The World Health Organization has on numerous accounts praised Iran’s efforts against the outbreak despite widespread US sanctions banning supplies from reaching the country.
Iran has also been lauded by China’s President Xi Jinping as a “strategic partner” in curbing the coronavirus outbreak.
Tehran sent several aid shipments to China during the height of the coronavirus outbreak in the Asian country.
The US, instead, has been piling on its unilateral sanctions against countries. Washington has also been accused by its own allies of using “Wild West” methods to divert and obtain coronavirus-related aid supplies ordered by other countries.
