FBI Director Christopher Ray suggested that the Corona virus, which caused a global pandemic over the years, had leaked from a Chinese government laboratory.
Ray told the American news network “Fox News” that the “FBI” assessed the origin of the epidemic, and concluded that it was “most likely due to a laboratory accident in Wuhan,” the city in central China where the disease first appeared in late 2019.
“Here we are talking about a possible leak from a laboratory belonging to the Chinese government,” the US official said in the interview, which took place on Tuesday.
Ray accused Beijing of “attempting to thwart and confuse what the US government and its close partners are doing,” in the context of investigations to uncover the origin of the “Covid 19” epidemic, which paralyzed the world economy for quite some time.
He added, “The FBI has specialists who focus on the risks of biological threats, which include things like new viruses like Corona, and fears that they are in the wrong hands.”
These statements are the FBI’s first public comment on how the Corona virus, which has killed more than 6.8 million people worldwide, emerged.
Ray’s comments chimed with the US Department of Energy’s assessment, which indicated with “low confidence” that the epidemic began with a virus leak from a laboratory.
On Monday, US National Security Council spokesman John Kirby said that “there is no consensus in the US intelligence community” about the origin of the virus.
China’s response
• Beijing announced on Tuesday that it was “open and transparent” in its search for the origins of the “Covid 19” pandemic, rejecting US criticism, which it described as politicizing the matter.
• Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Mao Ning Mao told reporters that China “shared most of the data and research results on the virus and made important contributions.”
• In response to comments from Washington that Beijing has not fully cooperated, she added: “Politicizing the issue of the origins of the virus will not tarnish China’s image, it will only damage the credibility of the United States.”
The Chinese authorities declare a “decisive victory” over the Corona epidemic
The origin of the Corona virus continues to raise controversy globally, and some studies indicate that it was transmitted from animals to humans in Wuhan, perhaps in a market for wild and marine animals in the city.
The market is a 40-minute drive from the Wuhan Institute of Virology, China’s leading scientific laboratory that conducted research on the coronavirus.
