Iran says has won US approval to transfer funds to buy Covid vaccines

Iran has said the United States approved its fund transfer to buy coronavirus vaccines from overseas as its daily death toll fell to a three-month low.

Central Bank governor Abdolnaser Hemmati Thursday said an Iranian bank had received backing from the US Treasury's Office of Foreign Assets Control to transfer the money to a Swiss bank to pay for the vaccines.

"They have put sanctions on all our banks. They accepted this one case under the pressure of world public opinion," Hemmati told state TV.

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Iran would pay around $244 million for initial imports of 16.8 million doses of vaccines from COVAX, a multi-agency group dedicated to assuring fair access to vaccines for low- and middle-income countries.

Iranian officials have said repeatedly that US sanctions are preventing them from making payments to COVAX, to which some 190 economies have signed up.

Iran's Shifa Pharmed began registering volunteers this week for human trials of the country's first domestic COVID-19 vaccine candidate, Iranian media reported, as a factional dispute appeared to be brewing over the use of imports.

Officials have cautioned that the danger of a resurgence in infections looms large.

US President Donald Trump pulled out of the 2015 nuclear deal between Iran and six world powers in 2018 and imposed new sanctions on the country.

President-elect Joe Biden's coming to power has raised the possibility that Washington could rejoin the agreement.