BAGHDAD, May 4 (Xinhua) -- The United States and some other Western countries should have taken swift action, as stressed by China and the World Health Organization (WHO), to fight the COVID-19 pandemic without reservation, Iraqi political expert Nadhum Ali Abdullah said in a recent interview with Xinhua.
Noting "we are getting used to seeing that the West and U.S. politicians are seeking a scapegoat instead of facing their own problems," Abdullah said, "they should exert more efforts to listen to China's repeated calls to cooperate and swiftly move to fight an all-out world war with full determination against this virus."
"The world needs every effort to win the battle against the pandemic and save the lives of hundreds of thousands of people," said Abdullah.
The expert noted that if the United States had listened to China's repeated calls, "thousands of people would be alive today."
Abdullah said China had shared epidemic-related information with the WHO in a timely manner and "alerted the world early on the seriousness of this disease" to advance international cooperation against the virus.
"China provided a great example in this global crisis by standing beside all the countries hit by the pandemic without regard to the difference in politics and the economy," he said.
China has sent medical teams, "loaded with advanced medical devices and supplies," to many countries to assist them in fighting the epidemic, Abdullah noted, adding "this is more evidence that China has not a hidden agenda regarding this pandemic."
On March 7, a group of seven Chinese medical staff arrived in Baghdad to help Iraq boost its testing capacity and strengthen its capabilities to contain COVID-19.
During their 50-day mission, Chinese experts visited areas from Basra in southern Iraq to the Kurdistan region in the north, conducting in-depth field investigations in nine of Iraq's 18 provinces and guiding local health officials and experts in curbing the outbreaks.
"The United States holds China responsible for the spread of the pandemic and demands compensation, without any tangible evidence, in addition to that all research carried out by scientists rebuffs the false accusations by the U.S. administration against China," the expert added.
Ethically, if the United States wants to apply the logic of compensation, it must find a way to compensate hundreds of thousands of Iraqis, because it illegally invaded Iraq in 2003, from which the country and Iraqi people have suffered a lot, he said.
The United States should join China and cooperate in the fight to defeat this pandemic, Abdullah said. Enditem
