Progressives in Congress — Sen. Bernie Sanders, Reps. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, Ilhan Omar, etc. — want to lift sanctions on Iran to combat the virus outbreak. That sounds compassionate, but it isn’t even close to reality.
“Rather than continue to pile on sanctions in the Iranian people’s hour of need, we urge you to substantially suspend” them to help fight the virus, said the lawmakers.
Yet Secretary of State Mike Pompeo notes that America is already “doing everything” it can to “facilitate humanitarian assistance” and ensure “financial transactions connected to that” take place.
There’s no sanction on medicines or humanitarian aid, he adds. “They’ve got a terrible problem there” in Iran, and America truly would like to help.
Tehran’s response? It’s rejecting aid. Last week, French-based Doctors Without Borders said it was sending a 50-bed inflatable hospital, and France was offering more aid. Yet Iran huffed that it didn’t need the help and besides, the French group — wait for it — is part of a spy network.
“We have empty beds and spare capacity,” Iranian health official Alireza Vahabzadeh told Bloomberg. “We don’t need this help.”
Meanwhile, the mullahs remain hell-bent on building up their nuke program. They’ve violated the 2015 nuclear deal by tripling their uranium stockpile and have blocked International Atomic Energy Agency inspectors from assorted sites. Relaxing sanctions now would take the pressure off to negotiate a new nuke deal to rein them in.
Of course America and the West want to aid even an evil regime like Iran’s. Alas, some regimes seem simply beyond help.