US State Department Director of Policy Planning Brian Hook lambasted the European Union’s decision to give Iran 18 million euros in development aid, urging Brussels to cooperate with Washington in its efforts to put an end to Iranian threats to world order. The State Department’s newly appointed special representative for Iran said the aid package “sends the wrong message at the wrong time.” “Foreign aid from European taxpayers perpetuates the regime’s ability to neglect the needs of its people and stifles meaningful policy changes,” Hook said in a statement. “More money in the hands of the Ayatollahs means more money to conduct assassinations in those very European countries,” he added. “The Iranian people face very real economic pressures caused by their government’s corruption, mismanagement, and deep investment in foreign conflicts,” he stressed. He added that the US and EU “should be working together instead to find lasting solutions that truly support Iran’s people and end the regime threats to regional and global stability.” President Donald Trump pulled the United States out of a 2015 nuclear deal between Iran and world powers in May and is reimposing sanctions on Tehran, while other parties to the accord are trying to find ways to save the agreement. Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Bahram Qasimi denied on Sunday that the aid was part of the proposed European economic package to keep Tehran in the nuclear deal. The EU funding is part of a wider package of 50 million euros earmarked in the EU budget for Iran, which has threatened to stop complying with the nuclear accord if it fails to see the economic benefit of relief from sanctions.