Rouhani calls US offer to fight coronavirus 'great lie’
President Hassan Rouhani and Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei have both rejected a US offer to help fight the coronavirus and say the United States is instead preventing them from being able to fight back against the pandemic.
Iran’s President Hassan Rouhani spoke at a Cabinet meeting on March 23 for the first time since the Iranian new year to address the country’s fight against the novel coronavirus and addressed the US offer to help.
“That the Americans say 'We are ready to help' under the difficult conditions of the coronavirus is one of the great lies of history,” Rouhani said. “It’s as if someone has taken a well and does not permit you to have clear water and then brings you a glass of muddy water and offers it to you and says 'I know you are thirsty; I have come here to help,'” he added.
Rouhani continued, “If you want to help, remove your boots from the path and step aside from the movement of a nation. You have come and closed the well. You have made problems for the sale of oil. You have made problems for banking transactions, for medicine, for food, raw material.”
“We don’t want your muddy water; just step to the side, remove the obstacles,” Rouhani said, adding, "Leave alone the other nations and companies and buyers and exporters and importers.”
