TEHRAN — Iran’s ambassador to London says there is no universal method to fight the coronavirus outbreak, pointing out that each city or country takes an approach that meets their needs.

“Countering coronavirus in each country is carried out based on the specific circumstances of that country and there’s no unified method,” Hamid Baeidinejad tweeted on Tuesday.

“Our country’s authorities also strive to take the best and most effective decision,” he said, adding, “The Foreign Ministry, in an invaluable initiative, tasked all foreign missions to collect and share their experiences [with Iran].”

As of Wednesday, the death toll from the coronavirus outbreak in Iran has risen to 354 with 9,000 confirmed cases.

The virus first emerged in China in December last year and is now spreading in the U.S., Europe and across the Middle East, sparking fears of a global pandemic.

In remarks last week, Baeidinejad said the anti-Iran terrorist group of Mojahedin-e Khalq (MEK) and other foreign-based anti-Iran groups have launched a propaganda campaign to mislead the public opinion about the coronavirus outbreak in the country.

The MEK cult and similar groups have been trying to exploit the epidemic to push the public opinion in Iran into a “mental deadlock”, Baeidinejad said on his Telegram channel on March 3. 

The campaign features a “very duplicitous” news policy, the envoy said.

When the country had not yet sensed the urgency to seek foreign aid, Baeidinejad said certain media outlets have launched a propaganda campaign implying that the Tehran government would resist Western assistance even at the expense of its people’s lives.

At the time, they were trying to create the impression that Iran was facing international isolation, and that no country was willing to provide it with emergency aid, Baeidinejad noted.

In the second phase, the propaganda drive alleged that the foreign medical supplies that had entered the country, including testing kits, were contaminated, he said.

The envoy gave assurances that Iran procures the foreign items required through trusted suppliers and that all the relevant sanitary standards are observed in the process.

“The main goal pursued by this propaganda is to create distrust between the people and the authorities,” he said, dismissing the “delusions” by those who think such campaigns would yield results.

MH/PA