Pompeo says US may consider easing Iran sanctions

TEHRAN (defapress) – US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo voiced the possibility on Tuesday that the United States could rethink sanctions on Iran to ease the country's fight against the coronavirus epidemic.

News ID: 80676

Date: 01 April 2020 - 12:34

He, however, gave no concrete sign that the US plans to do so, according to Reuters.

Pompeo claimed that humanitarian supplies are exempt from sanctions Washington reimposed on Tehran after President Donald Trump abandoned Iran’s 2015 multilateral nuclear deal.

The comments reflected a shift in tone by the US State Department, which has come under withering criticism for its hard-line position on sanctions relief even in the face of a call by the UN secretary-general to ease US economic penalties.

UN, as well as a number of world countries and international bodies, have urged the US to remove its draconian anti-Iranian sanctions.

Iran is battling the coronavirus pandemic under the harshest ever sanctions by the US, which were re-imposed after Washington left a UN-backed landmark nuclear deal between Tehran and major world powers, including Britain, in 2018.

After leaving the landmark nuclear deal, Washington began forcing others to toe its sanctions line.

Washington alleges that it has exempted foodstuffs and medicine from its anti-Iran sanctions, something that Tehran rejects as a “brazen” lie as the bans have deterred several foreign banks from doing any business with Tehran.

Iran has written to the United Nations and all international organizations, urging the removal of the draconian measures that have hampered the country’s fight against the virus.

On Tuesday, the total number of confirmed infections reached 44,606 in Iran, with a total death toll of 2,898.

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