Iran's president deplores U.S. sanctions amid COVID-19 outbreak

Iranian President Hassan Rouhani on Wednesday censured the United States for maintaining its sanctions against Iran despite the COVID-19 outbreak across the country, said official IRNA news agency.

"Unfortunately, Americans did not learn from this difficult situation," Rouhani was quoted as saying.

The current situation was the best historic opportunity for the U.S. officials to amend their mistakes by lifting their "illegal and cruel" sanctions, Rouhani said.

"Americans have always been against Iranians, but the current situation revealed their animosity more than ever," he added.

Over the past weeks, Iran has intensified global campaign for the removal of U.S. sanction as the country has been combating the outbreak of the novel coronavirus.

Iran is the worst-hit country by the virus in the Middle East.

Iran's ministry of health on Wednesday reported a total number of 47,593 cases of coronavirus infection, of whom 3,036 have died.