We Can Help Americans Fight Coronavirus, Don’t Need Their Assistance – IRGC

By Staff, Agencies

Chief Commander of Iran's Islamic Revolution Guard Corps [IRGC] Major General Hossein Salami said the Islamic Republic has enough healthcare capacities to help American people fight the outbreak of the new coronavirus, COVID-19, but does not need any assistance from the US administration.

Major General Salami made the remarks on the sidelines of Iran's biological defense drills on Thursday while reacting to claims by various American officials, including US President Donald Trump and his secretary of state, Mike Pompeo, to the effect that Washington is ready to help Tehran contain the virus pandemic.

“When Americans say they want to help the Iranian nation under these conditions, it is nothing but demagogy,” Salami said.

“They are themselves plagued by this virus outbreak and their healthcare infrastructure cannot protect the American people against this phenomenon. If the American nation needs help, we can render assistance to them, but we do not need their help,” he further stressed.

Trump and Pompeo have, on several occasions, extended a self-proclaimed helping hand towards Iran, with Pompeo accusing the Iranian medical system of suffering from weakness in the battle against the new virus.

Pompeo told the Sean Hannity Show radio program on March 18 that the US was “working diligently to create better conditions” for Iranians, and “make sure that we’re available to provide humanitarian assistance when we can.”

Iran has roundly denounced the claims as hypocritical, saying if the US genuinely sought to help it out, it should lift its sanctions targeting the Islamic Republic.

“The Americans’ attitude towards the Iranian nation is characterized by hostility. They were never well-disposed towards the [Iranian] people,” General Salami noted.

As cases in point, he cited the US president’s calling the Iranian people “terrorist” during his tenure and his bringing the people under the sanctions “so people are faced with problems concerning their livelihood.”

“By God’s grace, however, they were fortunately unsuccessful in doing so,” Salami noted.

General Salami reminded how the IRGC stepped in to confront the outbreak from the onset of its emergence, citing its setting up of as many as 10 mobile and field hospitals in places reporting high number of infections across the country’s provinces.

The IRGC, he added, is capable of creating even more such hospitals if need be.

Each of the mobile facilities that are run by the IRGC’s Ground Force and Navy are outfitted with all the equipment of a complete actual hospital, and can be easily relocated to various virus hotspots, the commander concluded.

Upon the outbreak’s emergency in the north-central city of Qom, the IRGC, Iran’s elite defense force, expressed preparedness to help fight its further spread.

Most recently, the IRGC began holding fresh biological defense drills as well as countrywide disinfection operations amid warnings that the new coronavirus pandemic may be the outcome of a biological attack targeting certain nations.