Pompeo
© REUTERS / POOL
The longstanding tensions between the United States and Iran have become especially palpable in the past several weeks as Washington refuses to lift sanctions against Tehran, which is currently the second worst-hit nation in Asia in terms of the number of COVID-19 cases.

Iran's Foreign Ministry has taken a rather creative approach to lament the US economic pressure on the country in general and to condemn US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo in particular.

In a tweet, the ministry posted a picture calling to "stop aiding war crimes" and "obeying immoral and illegal US sanctions" with the word "sanction" written in the middle of the image. However, the letter "O" was stylised as the coronavirus with a translucent Mike Pompeo emerging from it.


The post comes as the United States ramped up pressure against Iran by adding persons and entities to its sanctions lists.

Iran condemned the US action amid the world coronavirus pandemic, which has hit Iran especially badly, noting that defying American sanctions was a "moral imperative".

As of now, 41,495 people are confirmed to have contracted the virus in the country, whereas 2,757 have died from the disease.