Tehran (IP) - Iran’s Foreign Ministry Spokesman in his latest tweet released on Tuesday wrote that COVID-19 does not belong to a specific region or even a country; It is rather a challenge for the world over.

Iran Press/ Iran news: Iran’s senior diplomat’s tweet came as a reaction to US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo's calling the novel Coronavirus as Wuhan’s disease by which he ascribed it to China.

Mousavi added in his tweet that in the past three years all mankind has been developing hatred, lie, and violence as a disease (HLVS Syndrome, 2017) and now it is the right time for the people of the world to stand against such malignant illness.

#COVID19 is a global challenge, not exclusive to any specific region or nation. For three years, though, the whole humanity has been suffering from #HLVS (Hatred & Lie & Violence Spreading) Syndrome-2017. This is a high time that the world stands up against this malign infection. pic.twitter.com/qkjfG5l3UK

— S.A MOUSAVI (@SAMOUSAVI9) March 10, 2020

Pompeo used the term 'Wuhan virus' or 'Wuhan coronavirus' to refer to the novel coronavirus at least twice last week, first time during a news conference last Thursday and then the next day during a CNBC interview. Separately, on Sunday night, Rep. Paul A. Gosar (R-Ariz.) announced that he would self-quarantine because of possible exposure to the 'Wuhan virus', sparking criticism from users on Twitter, where he announced the measures.

Meanwhile, China’s Foreign Ministry criticized Secretary of State Mike Pompeo on Monday for describing the novel coronavirus as the 'Wuhan virus', a name that refers to the Chinese city where it first appeared, Global

Times reported.

Noting that the World Health Organization (WHO) had said that the virus should be referred to as the novel coronavirus and not by a geographic name, Foreign Ministry spokesman Geng Shuang said America’s top diplomat is trying to slander China.

“We condemn the despicable practice of individual US politicians eagerly stigmatizing China and Wuhan by association with the novel coronavirus, disrespecting science and WHO,” Geng said at a daily news conference.

“The international society has a fair judgment, and Pompeo’s attempts of slandering China’s efforts in combating the epidemic is doomed to fail,” Geng said, arguing that China had been open with information about the outbreak, sharing it with the United States and other countries. 205/207

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