President Hassan Rouhani said that Covid-19 vaccinations will begin in the coming weeks in Iran, the Middle East's worst hit country.

Foreign vaccines are a necessity until local vaccines are available, Rouhani said in televised remarks, without giving details of what foreign vaccines would be used, according to Reuters.

Earlier this month Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, Iran's highest authority, banned the government from importing vaccines from the United States and Britain, which he said were possibly seeking to spread the infection to other countries.

Rouhani himself, in compliance with Khamenei's ban, said at the time that his government would purchase safe foreign vaccines.