



Washington, DC -- United States Senator Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) today sent letters to the Department of the Treasury and the Department of State expressing concern about the coronavirus spread in Iran and seeking assurances that U.S. sanctions on Iran are not hindering humanitarian transactions that would help counter and contain the spread of the disease in that country.





According to reports, at least 26 people have died in Iran from the coronavirus -- the largest number of deaths of any country outside China -- and 245 people are known to have been infected. Moreover, the disease has spread to countries neighboring and close to Iran, such as Iraq, Israel, Kuwait, and the United Arab Emirates (UAE).





Despite the re-imposition of broad sanctions on Iran since November 2018 as part of the Trump Administration's unilateral withdrawal from the Iran nuclear agreement, only this week did the Treasury Department announce the creation of an operational humanitarian mechanism for Iran. Iran's Central Bank (CBI) is the last remaining Iranian financial institution able to engage in foreign exchange transactions involving humanitarian imports. Consistent with this week's announcement, Treasury issued a new general license that would theoretically provide an exception to the sanctions imposed against the CBI where necessary to facilitate humanitarian trade.





"Though these steps would appear on the surface to be sufficient, I am concerned that the limited nature of the exceptions and the fact that trade in general with Iran has been circumscribed by U.S. sanctions may make it difficult for urgently needed medical goods to get to Iran to combat the coronavirus," wrote Senator Warren.





Senator Warren raised concerns about the severity of the coronavirus outbreak in Iran, the chilling effect of broad-based sanctions on humanitarian transactions with Iran, and the unproven nature of Treasury's mechanism for allowing successful humanitarian transactions. She has asked Secretaries Mnuchin and Pompeo whether the U.S. is taking every reasonable step to ensure the availability of medicine and other non-sanctionable humanitarian items to the Iranian people to combat the coronavirus in Iran and throughout the Middle East, including whether businesses, financial institutions, or other entities have actually used the license issued pursuant to the humanitarian mechanism.





"I am concerned about the vulnerability of the Iranian people to the coronavirus and the potential for Iran's coronavirus cases to worsen the spread of the disease to neighboring countries, including regional allies, and to the rest of the world," wrote Senator Warren. "Therefore, I seek an assurance that every reasonable effort is being made by the United States to ensure the availability of medicine and other non-sanctionable humanitarian items to the Iranian people to help prevent the further spread of the coronavirus."





Senator Warren has requested responses to her inquiries by March 30, 2020.





Since the beginning of the novel coronavirus outbreak, Senator Warren has worked to ensure that the Trump Administration is effectively responding to the outbreak and that the U.S. has the resources needed to address this threat. Her ongoing efforts include the following: