{"id":215604,"date":"2020-04-06T14:48:24","date_gmt":"2020-04-06T13:48:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.ncr-iran.org\/en\/?p=215604"},"modified":"2023-01-23T10:54:37","modified_gmt":"2023-01-23T09:54:37","slug":"coronavirus-outbreak-in-iran-rouhani-continues-cover-up-and-lies-as-death-toll-approaches-19000","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.ncr-iran.org\/en\/news\/human-rights\/coronavirus-outbreak-in-iran-rouhani-continues-cover-up-and-lies-as-death-toll-approaches-19000\/","title":{"rendered":"Coronavirus Outbreak in Iran: Rouhani Continues Cover-Up and Lies as Death Toll Approaches 19,000"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Hassan
Hassan Rouhani in a meeting of the Iranian Regime’s Coronavirus Taskforce<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Since the coronavirus outbreak<\/a> in Iran, the Iranian regime\u2019s officials, after consecutive days of denying<\/a> the virus existence, have tried to downplay the crisis.<\/p>\n

The People\u2019s Mojahedin Organization of Iran (PMOI, Mujahedin-e Khalq or the MEK)<\/a> announced on Sunday<\/a> that so far over 18,600 people have lost their lives across Iran due to the coronavirus outbreak.<\/p>\n

The regime\u2019s president, Hassan Rouhani blatantly declared on Sunday: \u201cWe have white (virus-free) provinces in the south of the country where there are no problems for schools to open. Bushehr, Hormozgan, Sistan and Baluchestan Provinces \u2026 can start their activities.\u201d<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, Kianush Jahanpur, the spokesman for the regime\u2019s Health Ministry, declared a red alert for East Azerbaijan, Fars, Mazandaran, Isfahan, Khorasan Razavi and Tehran provinces.\u00a0 He said: \u201cNo provinces are considered white as it relates to the coronavirus outbreak.\u201d<\/p>\n

While governments around the globe extend quarantine dates and ask people to stay at home, while paying their salaries, Rouhani announced April 11 as the start date for low risk \u201cbusinesses,\u201d and \u201ceconomic activities.\u201d He said: We are using a step-by-step process to reopen the services.\u201d \u201cStarting from next week, the offices will start working with 2\/3 of their employees, and a third will be allowed to stay at home.\u201d<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, Rouhani\u2019s own Health Minister, Saied Namaki, as well as the Healthcare organization and other regime officials have warned against resuming administrative and financial activities. Seyed Hassan Inanlou, deputy director of treatment at Alborz University of Medical Sciences, warned on Saturday, that if people pursue their ordinary livings due to financial reasons, \u201cThe disease will explode, hospitals will be overloaded with patients, we will lose control, and won\u2019t be able to manage the outbreak.\u201d He suggested that \u201ca million people will die.\u201d<\/p>\n

The coronavirus outbreak has once again demonstrated the regime\u2019s inhuman nature along with its inability and unwillingness to help the Iranian people. Due to its institutionalized corruption and support of terrorism abroad, the regime has been plundering the national wealth. And at the same time has increased domestic oppression. Indeed, who expects a regime that massacred over 1,500 people during the Iran protests in November 2019 and shot down a Ukrainian airliner then denied it for days, along with its four decades of oppression to care about people\u2019s lives?<\/p>\n

The regime has refused all the international offers of help, expelled the Doctors Without Borders from Iran who were there to build a makeshift hospital, and most importantly has rejected releasing prisoners particularly the political prisoners as the coronavirus rapidly spreads across Iranian prisons. Despite all of these inhumane measures, the regime falsely blames the U.S. sanctions<\/a> as the reason of the exacerbating coronavirus crisis in Iran.<\/p>\n

The mullahs\u2019 regime considers the coronavirus pandemic as a security and existential threat. It fears public outrage and another popular uprising. But the truth is that the regime is in a deadlock. The regime\u2019s officials are unable to give the exact coronavirus death toll, as they are unable and have not announced the number of deaths during the Iran protests, because if they do so, a popular uprising and further international isolation is inevitable. In addition, the regime, due to its institutionalized corruption is unable and unwilling to help the Iranian people therefore no one should expect that the regime will do anything to control the virus. On the other hand if the regime continues its oppressive measures and refuses helping people, there will be an uprising and increase of the public hatred toward this regime, which was once demonstrated as the people\u2019s unprecedented general boycott of the regime\u2019s sham parliamentary elections in February.<\/p>\n

In this regard, Mrs. Maryam Rajavi,<\/a> the President-elect of the National Council of Resistance of Iran (NCRI)<\/a>, said: \u201cThe regime is terrified of the truth. The criminal decision by (the regime\u2019s Supreme Leader Ali) Khamenei and (his President Hassan) Rouhani to order the people back to work will result in countless victims. Rouhani\u2019s directive to resume \u2018business and economic activities\u2019 endangers the health of millions of Iranians. Contrary to universally-recognized standards, instead of providing the minimum means of subsistence to the Iranian people by using the funds in economic entities controlled by Khamenei and IRGC, which have been stolen from the Iranian nation in the first place, the mullahs\u2019 regime is sending the Iranian people to the altar of Coronavirus. Incompetence, pilfering, and tremendous class differences under the ruling theocracy aggravate the scope of the catastrophe every day.\u201d<\/p>\n

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Criminal decision by Khamenei and Rouhani to force ppl back to work will cause countless fatalities & endangers health of millions of Iranians #COVID19<\/a> #Iran<\/a><\/p>\n

— Maryam Rajavi (@Maryam_Rajavi) April 5, 2020<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n