Coronavirus Pandemic
US Secretary of State, Mike Pompeo, on Wednesday praised Israel for sharing information during global efforts to combat the coronavirus pandemic and took another swipe at China over what he said was its lack of transparency.
U.S. President Donald Trump and his senior officials have engaged in a war of words with China, where the new coronavirus first emerged.
They said it failed to inform the world fast enough about the dangers it posed and muzzled those who raised the alarm. However, Beijing strongly denied the charges.
Pompeo told Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, on his arrival in Israel on a one-day visit, “you’re a great partner, you share information.
“Unlike some other countries that try and obfuscate and hide that information and we’ll talk about that country, too.’’
Pompeo did not name China and did not give specific examples of Israeli cooperation in the fight against coronavirus.
Earlier, he repeated Washington’s charges against Beijing in an interview for the Israel Hayom newspaper.
“Here is what we know for sure. The virus originated in Wuhan, China. The Chinese Communist Party knew about this virus in December 2019 and attempted to obfuscate this.
“They denied people the ability to talk, they didn’t share this information quickly enough, they created enormous risk for the world,’’ he said.
The U.S. has previously cautioned Israel against potential security threats from Chinese investment in Israel, prompting the Netanyahu government to set up a committee in October 2019 to vet such projects.
Israel, with a population of nine million, has reported 16,539 new coronavirus cases including 262 deaths.
The U.S., which has 328 million people, has reported 1.4 million cases and over 83,000 deaths, the world’s highest number. (Reuters/NAN)
– May 13, 2020 @ 12:39 GMT |
Tags: Pompeo lauds Israel over coronavirus cooperation raps China
