The meeting was held on the sidelines of the Fourth Meeting of the Working Group on the Strengthening of the Biological Weapons Convention (BTWC) that is taking place August 19-23, 2024 in Geneva, Switzerland.
Representatives of the Razi Institute and the Pasteur Institute referred to the achievements of Iran in the field of biological sciences and their cooperation with countries such as Senegal, Mauritania, Mali, Uzbekistan, and Cuba in the field of vaccine and serum production as well as holding various training courses in this regard.
They also pointed to the challenges that Iran faces in the path of benefiting from its international rights due to the sanctions imposed by the US on the Islamic Republic.
Kayhan Azadmanesh, head of Virology Research at the Pasteur Institute, presented the 104-year history of the Pasteur Institute and the role of this center in controlling and eradicating diseases such as smallpox, plague, tuberculosis, and COVID-19, and the importance of cooperation in the production of science and vaccines, especially collaboration with Cuba in the producing two recombinant vaccines for hepatitis B and COVID-19.
Azadmanesh also pointed to the destructive role of sanctions in global health security and called for the creation of mechanisms to ensure scientific and health cooperation within the framework of the BTWC.
Raynak Qaderi, representative of the Razi Institute, pointed to the production of more than 80 diverse biological products from livestock, poultry, aquatic, and laboratory animal vaccines as well as diagnostic kits, and called the Islamic Republic one of the successful countries in eradicating and controlling many diseases in Iran and the region, such as bovine plague, polio, measles, and rubella.
The BTWC, which is an international treaty prohibiting weapons of mass destruction, came into force in March 1975, and to date, 187 states have joined it.
However, the United States violates the right of countries to international cooperation and to benefit from the capacities of biological sciences and biology because Washington imposes illegal sanctions and ignores its international legal obligations in this regard.
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