Iran says doubts US intentions in offering coronavirus aid

Iran says it does not count on the United States for help in its battle against the coronavirus because it does not trust Washington’s alleged offer of assistance.

According to Press TV, President Donald Trump said on Saturday the US was willing to help the Iranians with the problem, adding "all they have to do is ask," just after he authorized the expansion of travel restrictions against Iran.  

Iran's Foreign Ministry Spokesman Seyyed Abbas Mousavi said Monday, "We have had doubts and continue to have doubts about the intentions of Americans. If they had good intentions, they would not have publicized the aid first in the media with propagandist aims."

The United States, which has had no diplomatic ties with Iran since 1980, pulled out of a landmark nuclear deal with the country and reimposed crippling sanctions in 2018.

US Vice President Mike Pence on Saturday detailed Trump's heightened travel bans against Iranians in a press conference from the White House.

"First, the president authorized action today to add additional travel restrictions on Iran. … Iran is already under a travel ban, but we’re are expanding existing travel restrictions to include any foreign national who has visited Iran within the last 14 days,” Pence said.

Mousavi said, "We monitor the Americans' positions. We have already seen how much they acted against Iran and our capabilities and toward weakening the people, and those actions still continue."

"We doubt the intentions of Americans, and do not count on these aids and are not ready to receive verbal aid either," he added.

The US State Department said Friday it had formally told Iran of the United States’ willingness to assist in unspecified ways through a message sent via Switzerland, which represents US interests in Tehran.

Mousavi touched on a Swiss channel announced in December to bring food and medicine to Iran, saying the US government has even been stonewalling efforts to have it up and running.   

The spokesman said most of Iran's needs to contain the coranavirus and treat patients exist in the country, but that its friends have also announced their readiness to help the Islamic Republic.

"Turkey, China and the Red Cross have helped us. Some countries in the region have also said they are ready to cooperate," he said. 

Mousavi, however, reserved his special thanks for China. "The Chinese government has fully stood by the Iranian people and sent several medical shipments to Iran."

China also sent a scientific team for research on finding a vaccine for the coronavirus and to transfer their latest findings to their Iranian peers, he added. 

ME