WASHINGTON — As the coronavirus raced across the globe earlier this year, the Trump administration offered assistance to a pair of longtime U.S. enemies, Iran and North Korea. The responses hardly amounted to a diplomatic breakthrough.
“It’s clear that coronavirus is going to affect almost every aspect of American foreign policy for quite a while,” said Richard Fontaine, a former National Security Council official during the administration of President George W. Bush who is now chief executive of the Center for a New American Security.
In an implicit challenge to U.S. policy against other adversaries, two top United Nations officials, Secretary-General Antonio Guterres and Michelle Bachelet, the high commissioner for human rights, this week called for the easing of financial sanctions against economically strapped countries so that they could confront the spreading virus.
Despite a swiftly mounting death toll, which has surpassed 2,000, Iran quickly rejected the U.S. offer, making clear that what it really wants is broader relief from the sanctions Trump has imposed since he withdrew two years ago from the 2015 Iran nuclear deal. Even before the virus struck, Iran appealed to international opinion by arguing that the U.S. sanctions were causing innocent people to suffer.
“Rather than continue to pile on sanctions in the Iranian people’s hour of need, we urge you to substantially suspend sanctions on Iran in a humanitarian gesture to the Iranian people to better enable them to fight the virus,” a group of Democratic and liberal lawmakers reportedly wrote in a letter Tuesday to Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin.
Trump’s offer to North Korea was received more warmly, although its practical impact remains unclear. In statement carried by the North’s state-run Korean Central News Agency, Kim Yo Jong, the North Korean leader’s sister and policy aide, extended “sincere gratitude” for what she called his intent to render cooperation in the anti-epidemic work. But Kim did not say whether her country would accept any U.S. assistance.
China 🇨🇳 and Russia 🇷🇺 answered America’s call for help to the world for coronavirus fighting equipment. That should count for something.
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