Leader of the Islamic Revolution Ayatollah Seyyed Ali Khamenei says the United States and the Europeans do not want their failures in fighting the novel coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic to be seen.

He made the remarks in a video call to a meeting of the National Headquarters for Managing and Fighting the Coronavirus in Tehran on Sunday.

“The West and those supporting the West do not want this failure to be seen, but it is necessary to examine and articulate the dimensions of this inability,” the Leader said.

“The coronavirus spread in the United States and Europe later than other countries. It means that these countries had the opportunity to prepare themselves in the face of the virus, but they couldn’t as it was required,” Ayatollah Khamenei stated.

“The high number of infections and deaths in the United States and some European countries and various problems the people have in these countries, including unemployment, prove their inabilities," he added.

The Leader also pointed out that the West’s social philosophy proved to be a total failure in tackling the coronavirus pandemic.

Ayatollah Khamenei noted that social philosophy in the Western world is primarily driven by materialism and money.

“That is why they ignored the elderly, the sick, the underprivileged and the socially underdeveloped during the corona crisis. Because [people belonging to] these social groups are incapable of earning money and contributing to materialism. The result was that many lost their lives in elderly care homes – a further proof of the defeat of the West’s social philosophy.”

The Leader also highlighted the failure of ethics and how it was manifested in Western communities in recent times. He recalled how panicked shoppers raided store shelves in those countries, noting, “Despite all their claims, the West failed in this respect as well.”