US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo on Tuesday accused the Director-General of the World Health Organization (WHO) Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus of having been " bought " by the Chinese government, two British dailies said Wednesday (July 22).
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According to the Times and the Daily Telegraph , the U.S. foreign minister made the remarks Tuesday morning in London during a closed press meeting with British MPs, both newspapers citing comments reported by attendees. According to these sources, Mike Pompeo estimated that the failures of the WHO, an organization " political " rather than based on science, resulted in " British deaths ". The United Kingdom deplores more than 45,000 deaths from Covid-19.
" When things started to move, at the most important moment, when there was a pandemic in China, Dr. Tedros, who was ... bought by the Chinese government, I can't say more, but I can say it, I say that based on solid information, an agreement had been reached ”on the occasion of the election of Mr. Tedros at the head of the WHO, affirmed Mike Pompeo, reports the Daily Telegraph . " There was an agreement for this election and when things started to move, you have dead Britons, because of the agreement that was made, " he added, according to the newspaper.
WHO rejects all " unfounded allegations "
The remarks were made during a meeting hosted by the Henry Jackson Society, a think tank described by the Times as a hardline supporter against Beijing, two weeks after the United States officially launched its process of withdrawal of the WHO, which Washington accuses of having been slow to act in the face of the coronavirus pandemic.
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" The WHO is not aware of such statements but we reject any ad hominem attack and unfounded allegation ," a spokesperson for the UN organization told the Daily Telegraph, calling on countries to remain focused on the response in the face of the pandemic.
During his visit to London, after the British government of Boris Johnson decided to exclude Chinese telecom supplier Huawei from its 5G network in a dramatic turnaround, the US secretary of state called on the world to stand up to the China. After his visit to London, Mike Pompeo arrived in Copenhagen on Wednesday morning, where he is due to meet Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen and his counterpart Jeppe Kofod.
