Secretary of State Mike Pompeo asserted that “the very first thing we did when we learned that Iran was being hit in a significant way with this [COVID-19] virus was to reach out and offer humanitarian assistance. We did so publicly… we did so privately. We made very clear to them there wasn’t a cost to this.” “We’ve now facilitated assistance from other countries as well”, Pompeo added. He went on to maintain that the pandemic “is no reason to try and infuse cash to the Iranian regime... That cash will go into the pockets of the corrupt leaders. That cash won’t go for medicine and food and supplies”. Pompeo further argued that “they’ve got money; there are resources there. To suggest that sending cash to Iran right now is going to solve this humanitarian crisis is just a failure of logic. We hope that they’ll accept the humanitarian assistance that the Iranian people so desperately need, and there is no sanction in place today that prevents that from happening”.