{"id":219375,"date":"2020-05-31T16:29:46","date_gmt":"2020-05-31T15:29:46","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.ncr-iran.org\/en\/?p=219375"},"modified":"2023-01-23T23:32:38","modified_gmt":"2023-01-23T22:32:38","slug":"with-implicit-threats-to-the-public-irans-regime-doubles-down-on-false-coronavirus-narrative","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.ncr-iran.org\/en\/news\/human-rights\/with-implicit-threats-to-the-public-irans-regime-doubles-down-on-false-coronavirus-narrative\/","title":{"rendered":"With Implicit Threats to the Public, Iran\u2019s Regime Doubles Down on False Coronavirus Narrative"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"No
Despite the high risks of the coronavirus outbreak in Iran, the regime implemented a job reopening plan without considering the risks to people’s lives.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The Iranian regime has been trying to conceal its mismanagement of the C<\/a><\/span>OVID<\/span>-19 pandemic since the day it reached the country. Over time, that effort has seemingly become more and more divorced from reality to the point at which some <\/span>of the regime\u2019s\u00a0<\/span>officials now insist the crisis is disappearing, even as the evidence points to a second wave of infection in many areas.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

The pattern of deception began with weeks of refusal to acknowledge that the novel coronavirus had even breached Iran\u2019s borders. The first official government statement on the matter was recorded on February 19. But documents from Iran\u2019s National Emergency Organization later showed that suspected C<\/span>OVID<\/span>-19 cases had been admitted to Iranian hospitals before the end of January.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

The long period of denial was presumably motivated by a desire to promote \u2013 or in some cases compel \u2013 mass participation in February\u2019s\u00a0<\/span>sham\u00a0<\/span>parliamentary elections and celebrations of the anniversary of the\u00a0<\/span>regime\u2019s foundation<\/span>. This underscores the twisted nature of the clerical regime\u2019s priorities, which consistently place self-aggrandizement and force projection ahead of the vital needs of the Iranian people.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Those same priorities prompted the Iranian <\/span>regime\u2019s\u00a0<\/span>officials to repeatedly downplay the impact of the coronavirus outbreak, lest the regime appears as weak or incompetent as it <\/span>is in reality<\/span>. The late announcement of active C<\/span>OVID<\/span>-19 cases set the stage for official infection and mortality estimates that lagged far behind the actual spread. And ultimately, rather than play catch-up with the true figures, the regime simply committed to a fantasy in which the virus reached a certain level transmission and then began to level off in absence of serious government interventions.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

The result of that commitment is that the Iranian <\/span>regime\u2019s\u00a0<\/span>authorities are presently reporting something on the order of 7,500 deaths from the coronavirus outbreak. This is nothing to thumb one\u2019s nose at, but it pales in comparison to the figures that have been shared by independent gathering outlets like the National Council of Resistance of Iran<\/a><\/span>\u00a0(NCRI)<\/span>.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\"Weekly-Signe-up-logo-300x100\"<\/a>Accord<\/span>ing to the NCRI<\/a>, the death toll from C<\/span>PVID<\/span>-19 exceeded\u00a0<\/span>4<\/span>8<\/span>,<\/span>0<\/span>00 in the last days of May, more than six times the figure being presented to the public by the Iranian\u00a0<\/span>regime\u2019s\u00a0<\/span>Health Ministry.\u00a0<\/span>As the<\/span>\u00a0NCRI\u00a0<\/a><\/span>has\u00a0<\/span>said before,\u00a0<\/span>only a very small portion of the public is susceptible to this sort of disinformation. After all, the higher death toll is supported by testimony from ordinary citizens and from Iranian doctors and nurses throughout the country, who have risked arrest by sharing personal accounts of an overwhelmed hospital system and incomparable daily losses of life.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

The risk of arrest is not just theoretical. At the beginning of March, the judiciary made it clear that<\/span>\u00a0telling the truth, or as the regime says<\/span>\u00a0\u201crumor mongering\u201d about the coronavirus outbreak would be met with arrest, leading to brutal flogging and sentences of up to three years in prison.\u00a0<\/span>And in\u00a0<\/span>mid-May, security forces announced that more than 300 people were facing prosecution on these very grounds.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

It is well understood that the possibility of a much longer sentence looms for anyone who dissents against the clerical regime or contradicts its official narratives.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span>This is especially true if that contradiction can be tied, in any way, to the\u00a0<\/span>People\u2019s Mojahedin Organization of Iran (PMOI\/MEK)<\/span><\/a>\u00a0and NCRI, which are the leading source of opposition to t<\/span>he theocratic dictatorship.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Tehran\u2019s initial efforts to deny the seriousness of the coronavirus outbreak leaned heavily upon references to foreign and domestic \u201cenemies\u201d of the\u00a0<\/span>regime<\/span>. In the common language of the regime\u2019s officials, this term tends to refer to<\/span>\u00a0<\/span>the\u00a0<\/span>MEK<\/span><\/a>. Well-justified fears of the pandemic were dismissed as part of a coordinated effort to demoralize the Iranian public and destabilize the ruling system.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

In the wake of many thousands of deaths, the <\/span>regime\u2019s p<\/span>resident Hassan Rouhani seems to be circling back to this narrative with his latest public comments. \u201cSome are trying to scare people in the country about the coronavirus disease,\u201d he said on May 23, adding that authorities \u201cshould not tolerate this.\u201d\u00a0<\/span>The implicit threat was later strengthened when Rouhani tried to substantiate claims of a waning public health crisis by saying that any surges of infection would be attributable to misbehavior and non-compliance by ordinary citizens, not poor planning by the regime.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Such remarks could set the stage for security forces and the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps to initiate wide-ranging crackdowns, on the pretense of helping to conclude the fight against C<\/span>OVID<\/span>-19. In fact, there is evidence that this has already been happening. The IRGC, already a dominant force in the Iranian <\/span>regime\u2019s hierarchy<\/span>\u00a0and\u00a0<\/span>its control of Iran\u2019s\u00a0<\/span>econom<\/span>y<\/span>, was given even greater authority and funding by\u00a0<\/span>the regime\u2019s\u00a0<\/span>Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei, specifically in response to the pandemic. And a portion of that authority may have gone toward pursuing PMOI activists after Khamenei cited them as a looming threat to the regime\u2019s hold on power.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

According to the NCRI,\u00a0<\/span>Iran<\/span>\u00a0has been experiencing a new wave of arrests and interrogations in recent weeks. Many of the targets of those arrests report that authorities\u2019 questions are entirely focused on examining\u00a0<\/span>detainees\u2019<\/span>\u00a0relationships with the\u00a0<\/span>Iranian<\/span>\u00a0Resistance and assessing the\u00a0<\/span>popularity of its calls for regime change.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Those calls already secured mainstream acceptance with two recent, nationwide uprisings, one in January 2018 and the other in November 2019. This was the initial impetus for Khamenei to violate a longstanding taboo on the public mention of the <\/span>MEK<\/span><\/a>. His continued violation of that taboo is no doubt driven by anxiety about the looming public response to a mismanaged public health crisis, especially given that the gulf is constantly widening between official narratives and genuine records.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

The true rates of infection and death indicate that\u00a0as long as\u00a0Tehran\u2019s mismanagement persists, the crisis is still going to get worse before it gets better. Meanwhile,\u00a0as long as\u00a0Tehran\u2019s disinformation persists, the same can be said for the authorities\u2019 treatment of citizens who oppose the official narrative. But the silver lining in all this is that with so many citizens telling the truth and receiving support from an organized Resistance movement, things are also going to get worse for the mullahs. And amidst growing calls for their overthrow, they may never get better.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Iranian regime has been trying to conceal its mismanagement of the COVID-19 pandemic since the day it reached the country. Over time, that effort has seemingly become more and […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":8,"featured_media":218505,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[15],"tags":[186],"class_list":{"0":"post-219375","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-human-rights","8":"tag-coronavirus"},"yoast_head":"\nWith Implicit Threats to the Public, Iran\u2019s Regime Doubles Down on False Coronavirus Narrative - NCRI<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"The Iranian regime has been trying to conceal its mismanagement of the COVID-19 pandemic since the day it reached the country. 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