On top of drought, violence and repression, COVID-19 turned 2021 into another grim year for the Iranian people. (AFP/Iranian Presidency)She said that the crisis in the country was made worse by decisions at the highest level of government. “Although Iran launched its COVID-19 vaccination program in February, less than 6 percent of the population had been vaccinated by August 2021. This was widely blamed on Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei’s January 2021 decision to ban vaccines produced in the UK and the US,” she said. While Khamenei later backtracked on that decision and allowed the import of foreign vaccines, the damage was already done.

Source: Libya Today December 21, 2021 16:47 UTC