CORONAVIRUS HAS MANY FEATURES OF BIOLOGICAL WARFARE,GENERAL WARNS

Coronavirus has many features of ‘biological warfare’, general warns

1. Politics

March 11, 2020 - 19:4

TEHRAN — The commander of Civil Defense Organization has said the novel coronavirus has many characteristics of a biological warfare.

“It cannot be said with certainty whether coronavirus is a biological warfare, but it has many characteristics of a biological warfare,” Brigadier General Gholam Reza Jalali said on Tuesday.

He said further experiments in labs are needed to see whether that’s the case.

Last week, Commander of the Islamic Revolution Guards Corps (IRGC) Major General Hossein Salami said Iran is currently engaged in biological warfare and will definitely win the war.

“Today, we are involved in biological warfare, but the country is resisting,” Salami said on Thursday.

“The enemy is still focusing on economic pressure and psychological operation (against Iran) and uses every opportunity to toughen the conditions for our people. The enemy is seeking to shape the regional developments in its own favor,” the IRGC commander further warned.

The coronavirus, also called COVID-19, initially emerged in China late last year and is now spreading in the American and European continents and the Middle East, sparking fears of a global pandemic.

In Iran, the epidemic has so far killed 354 people and infected 9,000 others. Some 2,959 people have also recovered.

The illness, whose symptoms are fever, cough and difficulty breathing, may cause lung lesions and pneumonia.

Since December 2019, over 119,400 people have been infected in several countries, with 4,300 deaths mostly in China.

MH/PA