Iranian Official Urges Probe into US’ Role in Creation of COVID-19

In an interview with Tasnim, Brigadier General Gholam Reza Jalali said the US government has the world’s “biggest biological army” and may have been behind the creation of the novel coronavirus.

The United States claims to be the world leader, but it has formulated a biological cooperation plan and has established 25 laboratories with biosafety level (BSL) 3 and 4 in various parts of the world, he added.

The American biological laboratories are not subject to any international monitoring and do not report to any organization either, Jalali noted, saying the US has already resorted to biological agents in the past, as in the Vietnam War.

“In fact, the US has been always accused of having a role, either intentionally or accidentally, in the biological events, like the (outbreak of) Ebola, and the US is believed to have taken a deliberate measure (in creating coronavirus) with the highest probability,” the Iranian official noted.

The general said the Civil Defense Organization of Iran has set up taskforces to study the various aspects of outbreak of coronavirus inside and outside the country and consider different speculations.

He also called for a series of global measures to look into the COVID-19 pandemic, stressing, “First of all, a fact-finding committee must be formed by the countries that are independent of the influence exerted by the other states, such as the US, in order to study the aspects of the subject.”

The laboratories belonging to the parties that are accused of wrongdoing must be visited and reports should be received from the labs about their activities, Jalali added.

Moreover, a protocol and an international monitoring committee must be established to control the activities of the 25 American laboratories with biosafety level 3 and 4 across the world, he underlined.

The Iranian general further called for the formation of a global campaign to push for the closure of the research biological laboratories in various countries that are exempted from international monitoring.

General Jalali then highlighted Iran’s measures to contain and control the spread of coronavirus epidemic, saying the local factories have fulfilled the need for masks, gloves and disinfectants with the help of military industries.

“I believe that if the current trend continues, we will be able to play a role in the export of medical items in the near future,” he noted.

He finally noted that despite the weak points, the Islamic Republic has decent and acceptable conditions amid the outbreak of coronavirus in comparison with the countries that claim to be advanced and developed states.

According to the Health Ministry, more than 22,000 coronavirus patients have recovered from the disease in Iran so far and have been discharged from the hospital.