A group of Iranian dissidents in Isfahan, one of the nation’s biggest cities, displayed a protest banner on Sunday reading, in part, “Mullah’s virus is decimating Iran’s youth,” a reference to the Chinese coronavirus the Islamic regime has entirely failed to contain.
The dissidents are members of the People’s Mojahedin Organization of Iran (PMOI/MEK), one of Iran’s largest anti-regime coalitions, according to PMOI itself, which published video of the incident. The Farsi-language banner also reportedly read, “Khamenei the sinister mullah, you are the real virus,” a reference to Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.
The banner appeared to also display an image of Maryam Rajavi, the group’s leader.
The banner’s message resembles that of protesters in Iraq, where the Chinese coronavirus has begun to spread as a result of Iranian travelers into the country.
“The real virus is Iraqi politicians. We are immune to almost everything else,” an angry Iraqi told Agence France-Presse (AFP) last week.
“Political parties and corruption are an epidemic that is much more dangerous than the coronavirus. This is the outbreak we want to get rid of because it has destroyed Iraq,” said another.
Iraqis have been taking the streets against Baghdad’s growing closeness to the Iranian regime for months, triggering a deadly response from Baghdad and its Popular Mobilization Forces (PMF) a legalized coalition of militias that includes Shiite terrorists loyal to Iran.
Iranians, meanwhile, have been staging nationwide protests since 2018 against the government’s mishandling of the economy. The Islamic regime funneled millions in money procured through the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action, or Iran nuclear deal, into supporting terrorist groups like Hezbollah and Syrian dictator Bashar al-Assad, instead of investing in the economy. After the election of President Donald Trump, much of that revenue dried up, collapsing the economy.
While the protests have paused after violence by the Iranian regime, they returned with a vengeance in January against the Iranian regime shooting down a Ukrainian passenger plane amid its revenge attack after the Soleimani airstrike.
The PMOI also reported incidents of protesters this weekend burning down Iranian propaganda posters, including one of Major General Qasem Soleimani, the former head of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps’ Quds Force (IRGC). An American airstrike eliminated Soleimani in January, triggering widespread protests against the regime within Iran.
Radio Farda, a U.S. outlet sharing news from within the regime in English, reported of protests demanding roadblocks throughout the nation over the weekend, a product of “the Islamic Republic’s lack of enthusiasm in containing the novel coronavirus.” Both civilian protesters and lawmakers are threatening to build illegal roadblocks to contain communities affected by the Chinese coronavirus to prevent the virus from spreading, demanding the government use its power to quarantine infected populations and protest those not yet exposed.
“We are losing Mazandaran. People are dying. Please relay our message to the President,” Ahmadi Lashaki, a lawmaker representing Mazandaran, where the roadblock protests are occurring, reportedly tells the chief of staff of President Hassan Rouhani in a video circulating on social media and translated by Radio Farda. “Not only the natives of Mazandaran but all others are dying in the province. Close the roads.”
“No,” Rouhani’s staffer reportedly replied.
Mazandaran is home to large numbers of tourist locations and vacation areas along the Caspian Sea. It is about 200 miles from Qom, the holy city where health officials first documented a case of Chinese coronavirus. Iranian officials have yet to reveal the origin of that first case, but Qom attracts many visitors due to its significance in Shiite Islam. In response to lockdowns throughout Qom and other affected areas, Iranians began flooding Mazandaran, attempting to avoid the potential shortages and dangers of being trapped in a city with high numbers of coronavirus cases.
Khamenei has not responded to the surging panic nationwide with similar concern. In remarks last week, Khamenei insisted the virus was “not such a big tragedy” and praised the “jihad” against the virus that health officials and, bizarrely, the IRGC is waging against the disease. The IRGC is a U.S.-designated terrorist organization with no known medical activities but has promised to develop a Chinese coronavirus vaccine.
IRGC Brigadier General Ali Fadavi claimed on Monday to have “established a permanent base to mobilize equipment and capacities of the IRGC and Basij forces to help the administration contain the coronavirus epidemic,” according to Iran’s Tasnim news agency. The Basij is the domestic IRGC wing dedicated to repressing political dissidents. Among the alleged IRGC moves to help fight the Chinese virus are “measures to help businesses that have been negatively affected.”
Iran currently claims it has confirmed 7,161 cases as of Monday morning, among them 237 deaths. Iranian dissidents and anonymous health workers in the country had cast doubt that the official numbers are an accurate reflection of the situation – as have concerned Iranian lawmakers, at least 23 of whom have tested positive for Chinese coronavirus.
“I should say very frankly that the numbers of those infected and deaths from the coronavirus is not correct,” lawmaker Gholam Ali Jafarzadeh Imenabadi said this weekend, according to a translation by the PMOI/MEK. “… the cemeteries have no space and bodies are being buried on top of each other. … I would not be lying if I said that 50 percent the province’s medical staff are infected.”
Iranian police reportedly arrested a worker at a mortuary last week who filmed video of the dire state of his workplace. Video circulating on social media showed body bags piled up on the floor in front of nearly helpless workers with no plan on where to put the bodies. The Iranian government confirmed the veracity of the video, but claimed that the reason for the delay in handling the bodies was not a surging in deaths due to the coronavirus, but that families had requested the bodies be tested, which takes time and prevents a proper burial or incineration.
Multiple outlets have noted that local officials in one province, Gilan, said they had identified 200 people who died of coronavirus at a time in which the official death toll nationwide was under 200.
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