Iran's cooperation with Cuba on manufacturing a COVID-19 vaccine is indicative of a strong and clear signal to Washington that its sanctions will not cripple an independent country, says an Iranian expert on geopolitics.
“By cooperating with Cuba on its ‘Soberana,’ which means ‘sovereign’ in Spanish, Iran is sending the message that it will not be crippled or coerced and that it will continue to pursue independence – the beating heart of Iran's national narrative,” TRT World cited Ghoncheh Tazmini, Iranian geopolitics expert and London School of Economics Research Fellow, as saying.
Iran and Cuba signed an agreement in January to cooperate in the coronavirus vaccine project with the use of a technology that will be transferred to Iran by the Cuban government.
The US sanctions have hampered Iran’s access to medical equipment and pharmaceuticals, complicating the process of importing vaccines from overseas.
“The possibility of a fourth wave, the problem with emerging variants, require that Iran responds quickly. However, Tehran faces impediments in importing foreign vaccines, leading the country to look beyond the ‘West,’” Tazmini said.
“‘Vaccine diplomacy’ must be seen within the larger rubric of Iran's foreign policy imperatives: fostering non-European and non-Western alliance patterns, and alignments in order mitigate external (American and European) political pressure – which in the context of a humanitarian crisis, borders on coercion.”
The vaccine is now undergoing the human phase trials by the Cuban Finlay Institute and the Pasteur Institute of Iran.
According to TRT, the Turkish state-owned news channel, the vaccine, which does not require refrigeration, is due for release in May. ■
The European Medicines Agency has issued a positive opinion for the approval of a vaccine named Biobhyo, indicated to protect pigs from swine dysentery, a disease that causes dysenteric diarrhoea in pigs.