Secretary of State Mike Pompeo asserted that “the challenge that the Iranian economy faces is the direct result of the Iranian leadership. It has nothing to do with the sanctions we’ve put in place… The world should know that humanitarian assistance, medical supplies and those kinds of things are expressly permitted to go into Iran. Our sanctions don’t impact those items”. He further referred to protests in Iran as “a direct result of economic collapse, the absence of political freedoms and a regime that has sent their young boys off to fight and come back dead and hasn’t used that money for the betterment of the Iranian people. You’re seeing these protests as a direct result of that. We’ve supported those protestors”. “We’ve done our best to make sur[e] they can continue to communicate by using the internet, which the Iranian leadership attempted to shut down in its entirety”, Pompeo added.