"We have imported 146,246,308 doses of coronavirus vaccines," jamali said.
He said that all the imported vaccines have arrived in Iran in direct frights and then delivered to the Health Ministry.
In a relevant development last month, Iran’s Foreign Ministry Spokesman Saeed Khatibzadeh said that the imports of tens of millions of Chinese-made coronavirus vaccines might not have happened if it had not been for the 25-year comprehensive strategic partnership deal between Iran and China.
“I don’t think this would have happened without the strategic partnership and the comprehensive cooperation document,” Khatibzadeh said.
So far, Iran has received tens of millions doses of China’s flagship Sinopharm vaccine to immunize its population against COVID-19. Sinopharm has accounted for nearly 90% of all vaccines imported into Iran since December.
Iran has said on numerous occasions that the US sanctions significantly hampered its efforts to contain the virus and to import vaccines sooner.
Khatibzadeh said the huge imports of Sinopharm is one of the outcomes of the strategic partnership deal signed between the two countries in March.
The partnership deal, which was signed in March, aims to strengthen Tehran-Beijing’s economic and political alliance. The agreement was first announced in 2016, when Xi visited Iran to strengthen Tehran-Beijing ties. It also aims to boost economic cooperation between the two countries and paves the way for Iran’s participation in the Belt and Road Initiative, a massive infrastructure project stretching from East Asia to Europe.