Iran: Former Diplomat Blames “Genocidal” Americans for Coronavirus Outbreak

by Hugh Fitzgerald

Amir Mousavi is a former Iranian diplomat who now describes himself as a “researcher.” He recently gave an interview on an Arabic-language Russian television channel, about the crimes of the genocidal Americans and their key role in the coronavirus outbreak.

A one-paragraph summary of his interview is directly below, followed by a transcript of his remarks in that interview, which can also be found here.

Iranian researcher Amir Mousavi, a former diplomat, said in a March 23, 2020 interview on the Arabic-language Russia Today channel that scientists in Iran, Russia, China, and Cuba are studying the possibility that the United States created COVID-19. He pointed out that China has directly accused the United States of this, that “genocide is a normal thing for American policy,” and that the U.S. had been responsible for such things as using the nuclear bomb, killing people in Vietnam, engaging in biological warfare, the genocides in Iraq, Palestine, Yemen, and Syria, and even the “sacrificing” of 3,000 Americans on 9/11 in order to be able to take over the Middle East. He added: “The American mafia that rules the United States does not even mind killing Americans.” Mousavi wore a face mask during the interview.

Amir Mousavi: “Scientists in Iranian labs – with the help of Russia, China and Cuba – are laboring to study the possibility [that the US. created the coronavirus]. We saw that China officially accused the United States. The Chinese president did not talk about a possibility – rather, he officially accused the United States. Similarly, research centers in Russia – and even some American institutions – have begun to raise doubts on whether this virus is natural or made in a lab. Many accusations are being leveled at the American administration, and the American administration[s] have been known for killing humanity, in various places and various times. The first to have used the nuclear bomb against humanity was the United States. They have killed in Vietnam and have waged biological wars before and they are responsible for the genocides in Iraq, Palestine, Yemen, Syria and so on. Genocide is a normal thing for the American policy. We could even see in 9/11 how they sacrificed 3,000 Americans. They did not mind that as long as they could take over the region, exhaust its natural resources, take money, and control the region.

[…]

“The American mafia that rules the United States does not even mind killing Americans. I’ve mentioned the case of 9/11 and there are many more such examples. The American administration does not even mind killing Americans.”

According to Amir Mousavi, four countries (police states all) – Russia, China, Cuba and Iran – have accused the U.S. of deliberately creating the coronavirus. But he’s wrong on a number of points. First, the Chinese president did not accuse America of being behind the coronavirus epidemic. A mere spokesman at the Foreign Ministry’s Information Department, Lijian Zhao, tweeted this: “When did patient zero begin in US? How many people are infected? What are the names of the hospitals? It might be US Army who brought the epidemic to Wuhan. Be transparent! Make public your data! US owe us an explanation!” No one higher, and certainly not President Xi, has made such a charge. In Russia, all sorts of “fake news” stories about the coronavirus have been tweeted, but that is different from a charge made by a senior official about an American role in the coronavirus outbreak. Neither Vladimir Putin, nor any other Russian of consequence, has accused the U.S. of being behind the coronavirus outbreak. There is no evidence, either, of any high-ranking Cuban making such a charge. But Iran’s Supreme Leader, Ayatollah Khamenei, has accused the United States of being behind the coronavirus, in an attempt, he claimed, to depopulate Iran. Other Iranians have offered variations on the theme: the U.S., together with Israel, came up with the coronavirus “in order to kill Muslims.”

There is no evidence for this claim made against America; there is overwhelming evidence, however, that the coronavirus epidemic began in Wuhan Province, in China, most likely originating in a “wet” market which contains both live and dead wild animals for human consumption. It is believed that the virus originated in bats that were bought at one such market, possibly through the ingestion of bat soup, which apparently some people in Wuhan find appetizing.

Is America really known, as Amir Mousavi claims, “for killing humanity at various times and various places”? Did America kill more innocents than Germany under the Nazis? Under Joseph Stalin 20 million Soviet citizens died in labor camps, forced collectivization, deliberate famine and executions. In China, the researcher and historian R. J. Rummel has concluded that 77 million Chinese died in Mao’s democide; they were either executed, died in work labor camps, or were deliberately starved to death during the Great Famine. Between 1937 and 1945, the Japanese military murdered about 6 million Chinese, Koreans, Malaysians, Indonesians, Filipinos and Indochinese, among others, including Western prisoners of war. The Iraqis killed 182,000 Kurds in Operation Anfal. Bashar al-Assad’s forces have killed half-a-million Syrian civilians.

How does “genocidal” America stack up against those regimes? America’s most “genocidal” act was the dropping of atom bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Those bombs were dropped to save lives: the American military had estimated that an American invasion of the home islands of Japan would likely result in the deaths of more than a million people, including many civilians. The Japanese were not ready to concede defeat but were ready to fight to the bitter end; that’s why, even after Hiroshima, another bomb had to be dropped to convince the Japanese to surrender unconditionally. Many exaggerate the number of civilians killed in Hiroshima and Nagasaki, most likely because of the newness of this weapon. But in fact, relatively few died: the high estimates for deaths in Hiroshima is 120,000; for Nagasaki, it is 80,000.

Amir Mousavi continues to allude to other examples of a “genocidal” America: “They [the Americans] have killed in Vietnam and have waged biological wars before and they are responsible for the genocides in Iraq, Palestine, Yemen, Syria and so on”

Let’s see. In Vietnam, a ferocious war was fought, with not just Americans, but South Vietnamese and Korean troops, against the North Vietnamese. The civilian deaths attributable to the Americans are between 60,000 and 85,000. Regrettable, but nothing compared to the real genocides of the 20th century.

Mousavi, warming to his theme, mentions “biological warfare” by the Americans. What is he talking about? Where was there biological warfare – that is, the deliberate spreading of disease – by Americans, anywhere? If he is thinking of the one known incident in which a blanket with smallpox was given to Indians, that took place in 1763, at the instigation not of Americans but of English, that is Lord Jeffrey Amherst; it was a failure because the Indians in question had already had smallpox; indeed, it was they who infected English soldiers with it.

Then Amir Mousavi quickly alludes to American “genocides in Iraq, Palestine, Yemen, Syria, and so on.” The only “genocide” in Iraq was that committed by Saddam Hussein when his Arab troops killed 182,000 Kurds. There has been no “genocide” in “Palestine” by the Americans, who have never had a single soldier fighting in that theatre, nor by the Israelis. In Yemen, there is a civil war between the Iran-backed Houthis and the Saudi-backed government; the American military has not been involved, except insofar as the Saudis use weapons they have purchased from the U.S. In Syria,the Americans fought not against civilians, but against the genocidal forces of the Islamic State, and with the help of Kurdish allies, defeated the ISIS fighters.

Mousavi claims that “genocide is a normal thing for the American policy. We could even see in 9/11 how they sacrificed 3,000 Americans. They did not mind that as long as they could take over the region, exhaust its natural resources, take money, and control the region.

We are being asked to believe that the American government somehow managed to manipulate 19 Arabs into hijacking four planes, on 9/11/2001, and with two of those planes, bringing down the Twin Towers and killing nearly 3,000 people. A third plane was used to crash into the Pentagon, causing 184 deaths; the fourth crashed into a Pennsylvania field. This was done, according to Mousavi, in order to provide an excuse for the Americans to “take over the Middle East.” But why would America, given how ruthless and genocidal it has always been, in Mousavi’s telling, need an excuse to “take over the Middle East”? America first entered not the Middle East but Afghanistan, to wage war against Al Qaeda, that had used that country as its base, and against the Taliban, that had allowed Al Qaeda to find refuge in the country.

Mousavi claims that the American government itself carried out the destruction of the Twin Towers because “they did not mind that as long as they could take over the region, exhaust its natural resources, take money, and control the region.” Well, we know that the Americans did not take over Afghanistan, did not exhaust its natural resources (of which there seem to be very little), nor take money (Afghanistan is one of the poorest countries on earth) nor try to “control the region.” The Americans have not been able to control much of Afghanistan, even after nearly 20 years of fighting, and certainly do not control “the region.” Our war against the Taliban has not been profitable; it has cost the U.S. about $2 trillion dollars.

But what about Iraq, with its oil? Surely that was the place where the Americans wanted to “take over the region, exhaust its natural resources, take money, and control the region”? No. The American goal in Iraq was twofold First, Washington wanted to search for, and if found destroy, any nuclear project that Saddam Hussein might have had underway. The second goal was to help to establish a democratic government to replace the despotism of Saddam Hussein. As to the first goal, no nuclear program was discovered. As to that second goal, Iraq has held democratic elections, but it is still a country riven by sectarian (Sunni v. Shi’a) and ethnic (Kurds v. Arabs) strife, that sometimes descends into violence. There are quarrels, too, over the extent of control that the central government should exercise over the whole country, given that the Shi’a, who make up 60% of the population (the Sunni Arabs are less than 20%), now predominate in the government in Baghdad. The Sunnis do not want to acquiesce in their loss of power;, while the Shi’a have no intention of relinquishing the power that they have acquired since Saddam Hussein was overthrown.

Far from wanting to “exhaust” Iraqi resources – as Mousavi charges – the Americans scrupulously paid the market rate for the small amounts of Iraqi oil that their military needed. They neither seized any Iraqi oil, nor did they ever ask to be charged below-market prices. As for benefiting financially from the Iraq War, the American government ended up spending at least $2 trillion dollars on a quixotic venture: trying to turn a Muslim state, riven by sectarian strife, that in its entire modern history had known only despotism, first monarchical and then military, into a Western-style democracy. What was intended by naïve planners in Washington to be a Light-Unto-The-Muslim-Nations ended up being an example few wanted to emulate.

Amir Mousavi ought to turn his attention away from blaming the coronavirus on that all-purpose villain and Great Satan, America, level-headedly reject the crazed conspiracy-theorizing of Iran’s Supreme Leader, and ask himself the obvious question. To wit, why would America, which is now the epicenter of the coronavirus, have wanted to let loose such a virus upon the world, knowing full well that it could not be contained, and that whatever other lands and peoples were affected, this terrible virus would not spare the United States as, of course, it hasn’t.

First published in Jihad Watch.