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Trump Iran Tag

With the worsening of the Wuhan Coronavirus outbreak in Iran, prisons across the country are witnessing rioting and mass breakouts, Iranian state-run media confirmed. As the official Iranian death toll nears 3,000 and confirmed cases of the virus reach close to 45,000, Iran has become an epicenter of the virus which that first appeared in the central Chinese city of Wuhan. The actual extent of the outbreak could be much higher, as suggested by the mass graves dug by the regime and elaborate misinformation campaign.

The founding member of Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), Habib Barzegari, has died of the Wuhan coronavirus, Saudi TV network Al Arabiya reported Tuesday citing Iranian state media. Barzegari was also among the advisers to the Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Khamenei, news reports say. With this latest high-profile death, the outbreak has claimed several senior members of the Iranian regime, including several IRGC commanders, Khamenei's top aides, and senior regime officials.

Secretary of State Mike Pompeo on Monday slammed Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Khamenei for spreading the conspiracy theory that blamed the U.S. for the Coronavirus outbreak. "Khamenei's fabrications that the US is responsible for the Wuhan Virus [COVID-19] put Iranians, Americans, and the rest of the world at risk. Facts matter," Pompeo wrote on Twitter.

The United States has sanctioned several Chinese companies involved in shipping Iranian oil and financing terrorism, the State Department announced on Wednesday. The measures taken against seven interlinked companies include three mainland China-based firms, three Hong Kong-based, and one from South Africa.

Coronavirus has killed a high-profile leader in Iran responsible for the U.S.-designated terrorist group Basij Forces, the Iranian news agency Tasnim confirmed. Mohammad Haj Abolghasem, a senior commander, was known as the 'butcher of Tehran' for his role in the bloody suppression of pro-democracy protests that began in November 2019, the Iranian exile group said.

Secretary of State Mike Pompeo has slammed a reportedly 'secret' meeting between Democrat Senators and Iranian Foreign Minister Javad Zarif, Katie Pavlich at Town Hall reported. The comments were made in response to a report published in The Federalist claiming that Senator Chris Murphy (D-Conn.) and other Democrat senators met with Iranian foreign minister on the sidelines of the Munich Security Conference held last week.

The Iranian regime is using its space program as a cover for further developing long-range missiles, the United States has warned. "The technologies used to launch satellites into orbit are virtually identical and interchangeable with those used in longer-range systems, including intercontinental ballistic missiles," U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said last week.

The United States has imposed sanctions against a China-linked business network financing Iran's Islamic Revolution Guard Corps (IRGC) and Quds Force, both U.S. designated terrorist entities. The network bought hundreds of millions of dollars worth of oil from National Iranian Oil Company (NIOC), a state-owned Iranian firm "which helps to finance Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps-Qods Force (IRGC-QF) and its terrorist proxies," The U.S. Treasury Department disclosed Thursday.

The United Kingdom has joined the United States in banning the Iran-backed terrorist group Hezbollah in its entirety. The decision taken by the UK Treasury on Friday will lead to the freezing of all assets belonging to the Lebanon-based terrorist organization. The "failure to comply with financial sanctions legislation" or seeking to "circumvent its provisions" will be regarded as criminal offences, the UK  Treasury said in a statement.