Trump’s maximum pressure policy forced Iran into acting more aggressively : Biden

Joe Biden, former US Vice President and Democratic hopeful for White House nomination, called Thursday for easing the US sanctions on Iran over the COVID-19 coronavirus outbreak in the country.

In a statement published on the Medium website, Biden said that while humanitarian supplies were exempted from the US restrictions, the wide-spread concern over drawing US ire was still preventing aid shipments to Iran. Biden also slammed the Trump administration for walking away from the 2015 nuclear deal, claiming that Washington’s maximum pressure policy on Tehran made Iran more aggressive.

“It makes no sense, in a global health crisis, to compound that failure with cruelty by inhibiting access to needed humanitarian assistance,” he said. He also criticized the Iranian authorities for concealing information about the outbreak in the country but stressed the need to support the Iranian people.