A man walks past a street in the snow in Tehran, Iran, on November 16, 2019. (Photo: Xinhua)

TEHRAN  (Xinhua) -- The recent US block of a loan by the International Monetary Fund (IMF) to Iran to help the country fight COVID-19 outbreak amounts to "crimes against humanity," Secretary of Iran's Supreme National Security Council Ali Shamkhani said Sunday.

The US opposition to "the IMF's granting a loan to Iran to provide the necessary equipment to fight the coronavirus outbreak is a real instance of crimes against humanity," Shamkhani tweeted.

He said that sanctioning medical items is "an illegal act, an anti-human rights move, and (U.S. President Donald) Trump's open animosity with Iranian people."

On March 12, it was announced here that the Central Bank of Iran had asked the IMF for a 5-billion-U.S.-dollar loan to combat the outbreak of COVID-19 in the country.