The European Union’s call to lift sanctions imposed on Venezuela, Iran, North Korea and Syria that hamper supplies of medical assistance amid the coronavirus pandemic is primarily addressed to Washington as the international community now expects unambiguous guarantees on this issue from the US, general director of the Russian International Affairs Council, Andrei Kortunov told TASS on Wednesday.
The expert noted that the call concerns unilateral measures introduced by countries separately to sanction trade and economic relations rather than the UN Security Council sanctions.
“In this case, the US is a prime receiver of this call,” he said, adding that this is not the first such message. Kortunov recalled that UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres put forward this initiative as well as Russian President Vladimir Putin during the recent G20 virtual summit.
According to Kortunov, there is understanding now in the world that in the current extreme situation “rules of the game should be slightly tweaked at least in the spheres that directly affect the fight against the pandemic.”