The U.S. Special Representative for Iran, Brian Hook, emphasised that “our policy of maximum pressure on the regime continues, and it continues because… U.S. sanctions are not preventing aid from getting to Iran [amidst the COVID-19 outbreak]”. “One of the great things the regime could do is to open up its financial sector and make it transparent, and that would make it easier on a lot of financial institutions to trust the people at the other end of the transaction”, Hook added. Underscoring that “we have broad exemptions that allow for the sale of medicine and medical devices by U.S. persons or from the U.S. to Iran”, Hook added that “the regime has prioritised its proxies over the Iranian people for decades, and they have stolen the money from the people that – the Iranian people would expect it would go to their health care… If the regime is sincere about looking for resources to help the Iranian people, they could start by giving back some of the tens of billions of dollars they have stolen from the Iranian people”.