Despite recent setbacks with high-ranking assassinations and pandemic resistance, the 2020 launch sends a clear message to all Middle Eastern and transoceanic powers: Iran continues to make progress in its quest for regional supremacy and advanced domestic and military technology. Mounting pressure in the last decade has U.S. military and political leaders fearful of Iran's capability of creating ballistic-carrying spacecraft. U.S. Sectretary of State Mike Pompeo disapproved of Iran's successful launch, stating that it proves that the space program is “neither peaceful nor entirely civilian," but the Trump administration, supposedly, "never believed this fiction." During a press conference on 22 April, Pompeo said: "“The Iranians have consistently said that these missile programs were disconnected from their military, that these were purely commercial enterprises. I think today’s launch proves what we’ve been saying all along here in the United States: The IRGC, a designated terrorist organization, launched a missile today.”