Interview: U.S. accusation of China on COVID-19 origin "totally inappropriate," says Syrian official

DAMASCUS, Aug. 3 (Xinhua) -- The U.S. accusation of China on the origin of the COVID-19 pandemic is "totally inappropriate," Buthaina Shabaan, Syria's presidential political advisor, has said.

The official made the remarks in a recent interview with Xinhua while participating in the celebration of the 65th anniversary of Syrian-Chinese diplomatic relations and the 94th anniversary of the founding of the Chinese People's Liberation Army held in Damascus.

It wasn't appropriate for the U.S. to accuse China in this matter because China is the country that fought the pandemic with high efficiency and it's the country that offered help for many countries to fight the pandemic, she said.

She stressed that the United States is unable to mislead anyone by such accusations because "the world knows what the origin of these accusations is."

Moreover, the official called on Western countries, especially the United States, to change their positions and realize that they live in a world as one family and on one planet.

Thanking China for making every effort to keep this epidemic under control, Shabaan stressed that "China was much more capable than Western countries in controlling this epidemic, and it sets an example."

Shabaan described the future of relations between the two countries as "very promising," expressing her thanks to China for providing vaccines to the Syrian people and providing devices and equipment to contain the virus.

Since the outbreak of the epidemic in Syria in March 2020, China has provided Syria with various types of medical aid and special equipment to help the war-torn country fight against the pandemic.