Honorable Ministers;

Distinguished Regional Director;

Ladies and Gentlemen;

At the outset, and as my first contribution to one of the most important WHO Governing session, I commend my dear brother Dr Ahmed Al-Mandhari for his comprehensive annual report.

It has been 20 months since the Covid-19 epidemic struck the world. As the pandemic demonstrated, "No one is safe until everyone is safe", there is a shared responsibility particularly for rich countries to provide any support to the rest of the world. This pandemic showed the critical lack of resilience in health systems in four dimensions of health namely: physical, mental, social, and spiritual, which leaves populations vulnerable to major health risks.

The Islamic Republic of Iran has gone through five waves of Covid-19, but the rate of vaccination has increased in recent weeks with the use of imported and domestically produced vaccines. This universal COVID-19 vaccination gives us hope for smart re-opening of businesses in a gradual and vigilantly monitored pace.

Excellencies;

The resilience of communities to pandemics and health emergencies encompasses a broad variety of critical issues. Strengthening health systems, sustainable financing, health work force and flexible training, Risk Communication and Community Engagement, and more complicated facilities to track immunogenicity and to perform genomic monitoring are all pillars to build health system resilience.

The illegal, unilateral, and unfair sanctions had a devastating effect on my country's fight against the pandemic. The forced halt of our financial activities in the procurement of vaccines and also materials and equipments necessary for our several vaccine manufacturing firms, resulted in unnecessary and hazardous delays.

Excellencies;

Sub-regional platforms such as G5 which was established in 2005 on the initiative of the IR Iran, can serve as an effective arrangement to conduct collaborative and focused ventures including instituting the final push to polio eradication in the Region, malaria, CCHF and other hemorrhagic fevers. Undoubtedly, such actions will greatly facilitate our joint efforts to mitigate the risks of spread of viruses and communicable diseases further in the region. I highly recommend to strengthen G5 and other platforms through holding regular technical meetings. The pandemic showed us that regional and global solidarity is the key to effective response and prevention, and platform like G5 can serve usefully towards such solidarity.

Islamic Republic of Iran always stands committed and responsible to contribute to improving health globally and in our region.

I Thank You!

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