US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo delivers remarks on the current state of the coronavirus disease during a news conference at the State Department in Washington, US, March 17, 2020.
Separately, the department also named five Iranian nuclear scientists who the Commerce Department said it sanctioned on Tuesday for having taken part in Iran’s pre-2004 nuclear weapons program and who continue to be employed b y the Iranian state. The announcements appeared designed to signal Washington would not ease its campaign of choking off Tehran's ability to export its oil, despite appeals from China and others that it do so on humanitarian grounds because of the coronavirus outbreak.
Unjustified .