{"id":214744,"date":"2020-03-25T15:41:00","date_gmt":"2020-03-25T15:41:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.ncr-iran.org\/en\/?p=214744"},"modified":"2023-01-23T06:59:48","modified_gmt":"2023-01-23T05:59:48","slug":"as-pandemics-impact-becomes-more-obvious-so-does-iran-regimes-efforts-to-manipulate-it","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.ncr-iran.org\/en\/news\/as-pandemics-impact-becomes-more-obvious-so-does-iran-regimes-efforts-to-manipulate-it\/","title":{"rendered":"As Pandemic\u2019s Impact Becomes More Obvious, So Does Iran Regime\u2019s Efforts to Manipulate It"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"The
The density of the COVID-19 Outbreak Cases in Iran<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

On Tuesday,\u00a0<\/span>the\u00a0<\/span>Iranian regime\u2019s President Hassan Rouhani said that half of all government workers were staying home as part of an effort to slow the spread of\u00a0<\/span>the\u00a0<\/span>coronavirus. But this statement came just days after Rouhani downplayed the need for social distancing and a reduction in economic activity. While the regime\u2019s Health Ministry has warned of the potential for a spike in cases which could ultimately lead to more than three million deaths, Rouhani insisted that changes to daily life would only last between two and three weeks.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

These divergent statements reflect a weeks-long pattern of inconsistency in the Iranian regime\u2019s response to a crisis that has already claimed thousands of lives. The regime\u2019s official estimates for the death toll have just cleared the 2,000 mark, while the regime\u2019s authorities acknowledge roughly 25,000 cases overall. But\u00a0<\/span>a<\/span>ccording to the People\u2019s Mojahedin Organization of Iran (PMOI, Mujahedin-e Khalq or MEK)<\/a><\/span>,<\/span>\u00a0the death toll is close to 11,000<\/a>.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

According to the latest disclosures from the MEK, drawn from intelligence sources scattered across Iran, the epidemic had spread to at least 219 c<\/span>ities\u00a0<\/span>by Tuesday, claiming 10,900 lives. This estimate is consistent with information that has been provided to the media by Iranian doctors and nurses, some of whom have reported losing 20 or 30 patients in a single day.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

The regime\u2019s Health Ministry has been force<\/span>d<\/span>\u00a0due to the MEK revelations and the international pressure to declare in its statements that roughly one Iranian dies from coronavirus every 10 minutes. Yet the regime\u00a0as a whole has\u00a0continued to reject any estimates that contradict an official narrative. And in the interest of enforcing that narrative, authorities have arrested\u00a0<\/span>a number of<\/span>\u00a0persons, including medical professionals, on accusations of \u201crumor mongering.\u201d<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Early in the crisis, the regime\u2019s judiciary made it clear that sharing unsanctioned information would result in as much as three years in prison, plus a sentence of flogging. Yet disclosures have continued to trickle out to the public from the Iranian resistance. Early in March, it was reported that one individual had been arrested for sharing video of body bags piled up in a morgue in the city of Qom, which is generally recognized as the epicenter for infection not just in Iran but also throughout the region.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

The severity of the outbreak in Qom was first brought to the public\u2019s attention in February when a local official reported that at least 50 people had died from Covid-19 up to that point. At the time, officials in Tehran were only acknowledging about a dozen deaths across the entire country.\u00a0<\/span>The r<\/span>egime\u2019s estimates began to accelerate shortly after this discrepancy was revealed, but it is highly likely that from that starting point, the actual numbers of infections and fatalities have continued to outpace the regime\u2019s official statements.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Nevertheless, even the regime\u2019s estimates leave no doubt about the fact that Iran is in crisis. If the regime\u2019s figures are taken for granted, Iran still ranks as one of the countries\u00a0<\/span>hardest-hit<\/span>\u00a0by the global pandemic. The MEK\u2019s report confirms that Iran has far surpassed both China and Italy in terms of both death toll and overall number of infections.\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Resources Lost, but Not to Sanctions<\/span><\/b>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Making matters worse, the MEK reported on Tuesday that the fatalities up to this point include approximately 40 doctors and 130 nurses who fell ill while caring for patients. This naturally diminishes the Iranian regime\u2019s healthcare system\u2019s ability to handle a quantity of cases that is already overwhelmingly large and still growing. Medical resources are further reduced by the arrest of those doctors and nurses who speak to independent media about the severity of the crisis.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

It is unclear how many such arrests have been carried out, but the mullahs\u2019 regime has been prioritizing the maintenance of propaganda over the management of the situation as it currently exists. In an editorial published by UPI on Tuesday, former Member of the European Parliament Struan Stevenson declared that the Iranian regime has \u201cdone nothing to help\u201d its own people at this time, but has instead diverted medical resources like masks and sanitizer away from public hospitals and toward private institutions that exclusively serve government officials and their associates.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

That point was echoed by the US State Department, which released a statement and fact sheet on Monday which blamed the mullahs\u2019 regime for mismanaging the domestic crisis and thereby helping to make the situation worse on a global scale. The US noted that at least five other Middle Eastern countries were able to trace their very first cases back to Iran. It also pointed out that Iranian officials apparently covered up the existence of Covid-19 inside their borders for at least 19 days after they first became aware of it.\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

During that time, the airline Mahan Air, which belongs to the Revolutionary Guards (IRGC), continued to run flights between Iran and China, where the disease originated. The State Department fact sheet refers to Mahan as \u201cIran\u2019s terrorist airline\u201d in recognition of its longstanding and ongoing role in smuggling weapons and personnel on behalf of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps. Those activities have made Mahan subject to US sanctions since 2011.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

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Who transmitted coronavirus to Iran?
IRGC\u2019s Mahan Air is the main cause of the transfer of the coronavirus from China to #Iran<\/a>.
The criminal regime\u2019s officials are the main culprits of this national crisis.#COVID2019<\/a> #coronavirus<\/a> https:\/\/t.co\/o28M5qWrgh<\/a><\/p>\n

— NCRI-FAC (@iran_policy) March 25, 2020<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n