Top Authorities Weigh Plans to Neutralize Sanctions

The heads of the three branches of power convened on Monday to discuss ways of neutralizing sanctions.
President Hassan Rouhani, Parliament Speaker Mohammad Baqer Qalibaf and Judiciary Chief Ebrahim Raeisi met in Tehran on Monday to coordinate efforts for the settlement of problems.
Speaking to reporters after the trilateral meeting, the president said they have reached consensus on the procedures for neutralizing the sanctions, finalizing the national budget for next year and supplying the coronavirus vaccine, President.ir reported. 
Rouhani also praised the Iranian nation for “withstanding the economic war and the inhuman sanctions imposed by the US”.
“Neutralizing sanctions was one of the topics discussed in the meeting. As the Leader said, our first task should be to neutralize the inhuman sanctions, regarding which we had a good talk and share similar opinions; we agreed on the methods and steps we should take,” he added.
“We also discussed the budget bill for the [Iranian] year 1400 [starting March 20] that was submitted to the Islamic Consultative Assembly [parliament], about what the parliament and the government can cooperate on, and possible modifications that they can make in the bill.” 
Referring to the issue of Covid-19 vaccine as the third topic of discussions raised at the meeting, Rouhani said, “Unfortunately, there is a discord and debate in society about the vaccine that is not constructive, correct and useful. The first path is to produce domestic vaccine, on which two major institutes and a knowledge-based company are working, and we hope that they achieve full success.” 
“In the remaining months until the end of its activity, the administration will seriously pursue the health of the people, breaking sanctions and [improving] the livelihood of people with the cooperation of other branches,” he added.
Rouhani noted that there are two other paths that the government is pursuing: Ongoing cooperation with an unnamed country to jointly produce a vaccine and the planned purchase of vaccines from COVAX, a multi-agency group dedicated to assuring fair access to vaccines for low- and middle-income countries, and also directly from producers.