TEXT: Translating threats into opportunity

After the Islamic revolution of Iran and consequently because of the disconnection of the westerners from the god-gifted sources of energy in Iran, many pressures and vicissitudes have been imposed on Iran through various ways such as the eight year all-out war, economic sanctions and extreme pressure campaign in order to make the newly-established Islamic Republic of Iran succumb to the demands of them.

Although, despite these very vicissitudes, Iran continued to witness the constant progresses and prosperity in all aspects of country by relying on the unwavering support of all walk of nation from men to women and from the elderly to the youth. Numerous progresses in the fields of science, industry, technology, medicine, defence sciences and agriculture have been obtained during the last four decades in the country which are the obvious examples of the fact, and despite the efforts to make obstacles and stop Iran from achieving its goals and causes, the indigenous knowledge and expertise gained by the gifted scientists, thwarted and frustrated all the pressures and their supporters.

In the same wake, while the world was struggling with COVID-19 at the onset and during the pandemic in the year 2020-2021, hundreds of thousands of innocent lives was desperately claimed in Iran just because of inaccessibility and unavailability of medical facilities and aids such as vaccine due to the inhumane sanctions imposed by the westerners.

On that time, Iran was even deprived of receiving the simplest medical aids from all over the world under the pretext of sanction and pressures imposed by mostly United States of America. However, enjoying remarkable determination in the youth, owning adequate scientific efficacy and having faith in the mercy of god, Iranian scientists and industrialists could not only produce what was needed as a medical facility for the country but also they could export and donate them to the other countries, Pakistan being one among the others.

Meanwhile, the indigenous Iranian vaccine called COVIran Barekat, a COVID-19 vaccine, was developed by Iranian scientists and researchers in order to reverse the effects of the sanctions and to translate the policy of self-sufficiency in to practice. This is an inactivated virus-based vaccine and authorized to be administered for the patients. This makes it the first locally and regionally developed COVID-19 vaccine to be approved in the Middle East and being the single fist one Islamic vaccine in the world, it is prone to be exported to the other countries as well.

Multiple Iranian personalities have received the vaccine, including the Supreme Leader, Ayattolah Seyed Ali Khamenei and the President, Ebrahim Raisi. As of October 10, 2021, approximately 16 million doses have been produced.

The epic of “translating the threats into opportunity” is such that Iran regards any restriction and sanction as a way out from dependency and reliance through autonomy, self-sufficiency and progress.

Copyright Business Recorder, 2022