Iran says U.S. "lies" about COVID-19 help offer

Iranian President Hassan Rouhani said Monday that the U.S. help offer to Iran over the novel coronavirus outbreak is "one of the biggest lies in history," according to the state TV.

Washington's "unjust, illegal and terrorist" sanctions against Iran as well as other countries' submission to the U.S. pressure "have created many problems for our country," Rouhani was quoted as saying.

The U.S. leaders are "lying" when they claim that they want to help Iran, he said, adding that all they need to do is to lift the sanctions, he said.

"Then we can deal with the coronavirus outbreak," he added.

Iran's supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei on Sunday rejected the U.S. help offer, arguing that the U.S. leaders are not "trustable."

Iran is one of the hardest-hit countries by the novel coronavirus epidemic, with the total number of confirmed cases of 23,049, of whom 1,812 have died.