Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei says the country will not be importing doses of the COVID-19 vaccine from the United States and the United Kingdom.

In a televised speech on Friday, the supreme leader said he has no confidence in vaccines coming out of the two Western powers since they have some of the highest mortality rates in the world.

He said the same applies to the UK, and that he does not trust Britain since they may wish to test out their vaccines on other nations.

Khameni also doubted importing vaccines from France, due to it’s complicity in the infected blood scandal that began in the early 1990s.

At the time, Iran was among the recipients of blood supplies from France that later turned out to be infected with HIV. Hundreds of Iranian haemophiliacs were infected by the tainted blood and Iran says it never received compensation.

“If they can create a vaccine, if their Pfizer factory can manufacture a vaccine, then why do they want to give it to us? They should consume it themselves so they wouldn’t have so many deaths,” he said in his speech.

Meanwhile, the Iranian government is also trying to secure 16.8 million doses of vaccines from COVAX, a global vaccine effort operating under the World Health Organization.

On Friday, Khamenei praised efforts to manufacture vaccines in Iran, saying they are a source of “pride”.

Iran launched the human trials of its first vaccine candidate, COVIran Barekat, on December 29.

In an effort to boost confidence in the vaccine, the daughter of the head of Setad, a powerful organisation operating under the supreme leader, was the first person to receive a shot.

Iran has several other candidates, all of which it said are expected to clear animal trials before the end of February.

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