Influential Iran Lawmaker Says Coronavirus Is A 'Bio-Terror Attack'

Heshmatollah Falahatpisheh is an influential hardliner member of Iran's parliament. FILE PHOTO

An influential member of Iran’s parliament has repeated the accusation that the coronavirus epidemic in China and Iran is “bio-terror attack”, one day after the commander of Revolutionary Guard made the same statement.

Heshmatollah Falahatpisheh, a conservative leading lawmaker who is a member of parliament’s influential National Security Commission who spoke with the semi-official ISNA news website on March 6 did not say what country was behind the alleged “bio-terror attack”.

The commander of the Islamic Revolution Guard Corps, IRGC, Hossein Salami yesterday said that the coronavirus “perhaps is a bio-terror attack” by the United States.

Falahatpisheh also said in his interview that Washington’s announcement to be ready to help Iran is “political show-off”. The United States officially sent a message to the Islamic Republic on February 28 it is ready to help the people of Iran to defeat the epidemic. Iran’s foreign ministry rejected the offer.

The conservative lawmaker told ISNA the United States should remove “all sanctions” against Iran to help prevent the spread of the virus “in the region”.

Falahatpisheh went as far as proposing the establishment “bio-terror defense headquarters”. Currently this is the duty of the country’s civil-defense authority.

Accusations of a bio-terror attack are being voiced at a time when the coronavirus contagion has become widespread in Iran, affecting all the country’s provinces.

SEE ALSO: IRGC Says Coronavirus Outbreak Is ‘Biological Warfare’ By America, 3,500 Infected