The US Treasury Department vowed today to prioritize and expedite the review of humanitarian license requests to send medical equipment to Iran to treat COVID-19 patients.

Amid mounting criticism that the US sanctions regime has hindered medical trade with Iran, the Treasury Department vowed in a fact sheet today to quickly examine license requests for vital hospital equipment such as oxygen generators, full face respirators, diagnostic medical imaging equipment and “certain decontamination equipment.”

Why it matters: The Donald Trump administration issued a general humanitarian license for medical and agricultural trade with the Iranian Central Bank as the coronavirus pandemic gripped Iran earlier this year — after a counterterrorism designation last year effectively cut off exemptions for humanitarian exchanges.

But human rights groups and sanctions critics have noted that some equipment that Iranian hospitals need to fight the coronavirus requires special licenses. The Treasury Department fact sheet acknowledged that these items require specific licenses “on a case-by-case basis due to concerns about potential end use of these specific items.”