Holocaust-denying Iranian Cleric Permits Using Israeli Coronavirus ‘Vaccine’

A Holocaust-denying Iranian religious leader has ruled that it is permissible for Muslims to use an Israeli vaccine for coronavirus — which has yet to be developed — if there is no substitute.

The Times of Israel reports:

A prominent Iranian cleric has said it is permissible to use a future coronavirus vaccine developed by Israel if “there is no substitute.”

The Iranian regime views Israel as a mortal enemy. But Iran has also faced one of the most severe outbreaks of the COVID-19 coronavirus outside its origin and epicenter in China.

“It is not permissible to buy and sell from Zionists and Israel,” Grand Ayatollah Naser Makarem Shirazi, 93, told the Iranian daily Hamdeli on Wednesday.

“Unless the treatment is unique and there is no substitute,” he added, “then this is not an obstacle.”

Shirazi has called the Holocaust, in which six million Jews were murdered, a “superstition,” according to the Times.

Israel has not actually developed a coronavirus vaccine, though several Israeli companies are working on one, and there have been reports that one may emerge soon, though it would still have to endure months of clinical trials.

Iranian leaders have vowed to destroy Israel, but the regime faces an existential threat in the form of coronavirus, which has affected many senior leaders — many of whom are in the older age groups most susceptible to illness.

Two years ago, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu launched an effort to provide free water technology directly to the Iranian people, using online tools. Iran is at risk of severe water shortages; Israel is a world leader.

Joel B. Pollak is Senior Editor-at-Large at Breitbart News and the host of Breitbart News Sunday on Sirius XM Patriot on Sunday evenings from 7 p.m. to 10 p.m. ET (4 p.m. to 7 p.m. PT). He earned an A.B. in Social Studies and Environmental Science and Public Policy from Harvard College, and a J.D. from Harvard Law School. He is a winner of the 2018 Robert Novak Journalism Alumni Fellowship. He is also the co-author of How Trump Won: The Inside Story of a Revolution, which is available from Regnery. Follow him on Twitter at @joelpollak.