NOURNEWS:
The United States blames countries like China and the World Health Organization for the coronavirus outbreak. How do you evaluate Trump's statement?
It is a very irresponsible statement, not very constructive and far from the truth, like many of the ones made by the President of the United States.
This administration has made of lying and defamation one of the preferred instruments of its foreign policy.
Cuba has ratified to China the unwavering support and solidarity of the Cuban people, Party and government with that brother country in the battle it has been waging to prevent and control the epidemic outbreak of the coronavirus.
From the first moment we trusted in the ability of the Chinese authorities to overcome adversities, under the leadership of the Communist Party and with the unity and firmness of the people and their leaders. Cuba offered its modest help, in keeping with the solidarity vocation of our people and the feelings that unite us. Both countries have always been together and we will continue together, especially in difficult times, supporting and cooperating with each other..
From the very beginning of the outbreak, Cuban President Miguel Díaz Canel visited the Chinese embassy in Havana to express his support, which is a clear reflection of the traditional friendship between the two nations. China and Cuba are good friends, comrades and brothers.
In the case of the World Health Organization, such a claim was the crude pretext used to suspend their funds, what the Cuban Government called an attack on the international community, a crime in the midst of a pandemic. Even the American Medical Association viewed the action as a dangerous step, in the wrong direction, and urged the President to reconsider.
Cuba firmly believes that the role and leadership of the UN and WHO are essential, and has expressed that it will continue to work with the WHO, defending solidarity and cooperation as the only way to train and overcome this pandemic. These are moments of unity and solidarity, not of selfishness and pettiness. We must prioritize the life of the planet and human beings, over political conveniences or economic advantages.
In both cases, these are actions that seek to divert attention to the ineffective response of the Trump Government and the lack of protection of its population. The health situation in the United States is chaotic.
How do you evaluate the management of Iran during the corona crisis?
subject, but I have seen a government dedicated to fighting the pandemic, protecting its population, dedicating its scientific and productive resources, its armed forces, tens of thousands of volunteers. , and your health system, to contain this deadly virus.
The World Health Organization itself recognized that the strategies and priorities of the Islamic Republic of Iran to control the new coronavirus were in the right direction, with positive actions in management, prevention and control, with a significant network of laboratories, and a positive communicational action on the risks and precautions to observe. WHO experts recognized that Iran has a sufficiently strong health system, with a good capacity to carry out diagnostic tests, as well as sectoral, intersectoral cooperation and population participation.
Iran has another great merit, having done all of this in the midst of a severe US economic sanctions regime. A criminal, barbaric, inhuman policy that has undoubtedly hampered the efforts of the Persian nation against COVID-19. Without these sanctions, the Iranian people would have suffered less infected and fewer people would have died. Today Iran can show better results than those who impose those immoral sanctions on it.
Cuba is a country with many doctors and specialists. How do you use this great ability to help fight the coronavirus?
Cuba has a totally free and universal coverage health system, classified by the World Health Organization as a model for the world, ranked among the first countries on the planet in number of doctors per inhabitant.
The Revolution has formed a large number of doctors and specialists not only from Cuba but from all continents. The high level of organization and control that our health system possesses has allowed us to face the pandemic with high efficiency, despite the strong economic, financial and commercial blockade imposed by the United States against the island for more than 60 years.
For Cuba, international solidarity has been a priority principle in our foreign policy, since the beginning of the Revolution. The first Medical Brigade that Cuba sent outside its borders was to Algeria, in 1963. We did not deny that solidarity to anyone, not even to the United States, which causes us so much damage, if that were the case. We do not give what we have left, we share what little we have. Cuba has doctors in places in the world where nobody goes.
Due to the prestige of Cuban health collaborators, our country has received numerous requests for help to combat COVID-19. We have responded to these requests for cooperation without stopping to assess political coincidences or economic advantages. Currently, 24 brigades have been sent to 22 countries in Europe, Latin America and the Caribbean, Africa, and the Middle East, with a total of 1,466 Cuban health professionals who have joined the national and local effort.
With this approach, Cuba, despite being a small nation, with little natural wealth and subjected to a long and brutal economic blockade, we have been able to accumulate for decades experience in the development of international cooperation in health, generously recognized by the Organization World Health and our partners.
We have also shared some of the medicines produced by the island that, according to our practice, have proven efficacy in preventing or treating the disease. Additionally, our medical personnel have participated from Cuba, and via teleconferences, in consultations and debates on specific treatments for patients or particular groups of these in various countries.
This effort is carried out without neglecting the responsibility to protect the Cuban population, which is rigorously carried out despite the immense limitations imposed by the economic, commercial and financial blockade of the United States.
On April 30, Foreign Ministers Javad Zarif of Iran and Bruno Rodríguez, of Cuba, held a telephone conversation in which, among other things, they discussed the COVID-19 pandemic and condemned Washington's coercive, illegal and cruel measures. against the two countries, in the midst of the fight of both nations against the COVID-19 pandemic.
Finally, I want to take this opportunity to send a fraternal greeting to the Iranian people and congratulate them on the holy month of Ramadan. I wish you a lot of prosperity, happiness, strength and unity to confront and overcome the two viruses that plague humanity today: COVID-19 and US imperialism. I trust that you will win.
NOURNEWS