IRNA - Iranian Foreign Minister in a message on Wednesday criticized US for defunding the World Health Organization (WHO), saying US bullying is killing people.

"The world is learning what Iran has known & experienced all along: US regime's bullying, threatening & vainglorious blathering isn’t just an addiction: it kills people," Zarif wrote in his Twitter account.

He added: "Like "maximum pressure" against Iran, the shameful defunding WHO amid a pandemic will live in infamy."

Earlier, Zarif said in an interview with Brazilian media ‘Folha de S.Paulo’ that the US Medical Terrorism impeded Iran's effective reaction against corona pandemic.

The US maximum pressure against Iran blocks exports "so, we have less resources for investment", he added.

Iran is a rich country but due to sanctions we do not have necessary resources to serve affected people, he noted.

Even if we had financial capability to supply them, sanctions impede purchase of medicines and medical equipment.

It makes no difference for banking restrictions whether you want to buy humanitarian goods or not, Zarif said, in reference to cut-off link of SWIFT Interbank Financial Telecom of Central Bank of Iran by the US Department of Treasury.

Meanwhile, a diverse group of US academics, researchers and NGO leaders have signed an open letter addressed to the leaders of the P4+1 countries (United Kingdom, France, Germany, China, and Russia) and the US lawmakers, calling on them to lift sanctions on Iran impeding Iranian campaign against coronavirus.

Today, Iran, like other world countries, is fighting against the coronavirus; meanwhile, Iran is under the sanctions and cannot receive medical equipment.