New York, April 6 (RHC)-- The United States government has revealed its contempt for human compassion and global solidarity by refusing to lift draconian sanctions on Iran and Venezuela during the COVID-19 crisis, movie director Oliver Stone has argued.

Iran has suffered immensely from the virus, Stone noted in an op-ed published by the New York Daily News, but due to U.S. sanctions, the Islamic Republic is “reportedly the only country in the world that cannot buy medicines needed to fight the pandemic."

Oliver Stone also condemned Washington’s decision to maintain -- and in some cases, increase -- its economic chokeholds on countries such as Cuba, Venezuela and Nicaragua as coronavirus strains healthcare systems across the globe.

The award-winning filmmaker and activist said that the health crisis has shown the inhumanity of Washington’s foreign policy.  The current pandemic is exposing not only our government’s utter failures to protect its own citizens, but also its profound lack of human decency in dealing with other nations."

Oliver Stone called for “serious moral self-reflection” in the U.S., warning that countless lives were at risk unless there is an “immediate change in course.”