Secretary of State Mike Pompeo rebuffed the Iranian regime’s suggestion that the coronavirus was bioengineered by the United States to target Iran and other geopolitical foes.
The top U.S. diplomat argued that Iran was more interested in ideology than fighting the COVID-19 pandemic.
“Supreme Leader Khamenei’s fabrications regarding the Wuhan virus are dangerous, and they put Iranians and people around the world at greater risk,” Pompeo said on Monday. “Facts matter.”
The secretary of state said U.S. scientists “are working tirelessly to develop a vaccine” and pointed out that the U.S. offered over $100 million in medical assistance to foreign countries, including Iran.
“Khamenei rejected this offer because he works tirelessly to concoct conspiracy theories and prioritizes ideology over the Iranian people,” Pompeo said.
The blunt assessment followed Ayatollah Ali Khamenei’s Sunday address, during which he called the U.S. offer of help “strange” and accused Washington of nefarious motives — amplifying accusations similar to those pushed by the Chinese Communist Party.
“You Americans are accused of having created the coronavirus,” Khamenei said. “You could be giving medicines that spread the virus. … You could be sending a medicine that causes the virus to remain permanently so that it won’t go away.”
Khamenei said, “If you send us doctors or physicians, they might come to see firsthand the effect of the poison that they created,” and he suggested that “part of the virus has been created specifically to target Iran” through U.S. medical experts “using their knowledge of Iranian genes.”
Iranian President Hassan Rouhani called the U.S. offer of help “one of the biggest lies in history.”
Numerous Iranian leaders have repeatedly blamed the U.S. for the coronavirus, but the World Health Organization concluded that the COVID-19 virus outbreak’s initial “epicenter” was in Wuhan, China, and its investigative report in February tied the earliest cases to a “zoonotic source” at the Huanan Wholesale Seafood Market.
Pompeo blamed Iran for its current predicament and for helping to spread the COVID-19 virus around the world. In February, Pompeo said, Iran’s “chief terror airline” Mahan Air, ran at least 55 flights between Tehran and China, “further infecting the Iranian people.” He also argued that “at least five foreign countries’ first cases of coronavirus were directly imported from Iran,” which put “millions more lives at risk.”
There were over 353,000 confirmed coronavirus cases around the world as of Monday morning and at least 15,430 deaths tied to the infection, according to Johns Hopkins University. There have been 23,049 confirmed cases in Iran and 1,812 confirmed deaths, although the U.S. believes those numbers are likely much higher. In the U.S., there have been 35,345 cases, which have resulted in 473 deaths.
Pompeo said that “the Iranian regime ignored repeated warnings from its own health officials and denied its first death from the coronavirus for at least nine days.” The secretary of state also said that “the regime continues to lie to the Iranian people and the world about the number of cases and deaths.”
He added that U.S. sanctions against Iran “do not target imports of food, medicine and medical equipment, or other humanitarian goods” and that Iranian health companies “have been able to import testing kits without obstacle from U.S. sanctions.”
The day after Iranian-backed groups killed two U.S. soldiers this month, Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif demanded Western aid and the easing of U.S. sanctions imposed on the regime’s nuclear program to help Tehran fight the coronavirus.
“It is important to note that since 2012, Iran has spent over $16 billion on terror abroad and used sanctions relief from the [Iran nuclear deal] to fill up its proxies’ coffers,” Pompeo said on Monday. “Regime officials stole over a billion euros intended for medical supplies, and continue to hoard desperately needed masks, gloves, and other medical equipment for sale on the black market.”
Chinese diplomats have also engaged in a messaging campaign to blame the COVID-19 virus outbreak on the U.S. military, and Russian leader Vladimir Putin backed China’s Xi Jinping in China in the war of words.
In January, the Trump administration announced travel restrictions from China, and President Trump implemented restrictions on Iran in late February. Trump announced a European travel ban in March and followed up by declaring a national emergency.
