The Saudi news agency al-Arabiya identified in a report
Monday at least 17 senior members of the Iranian Islamic regime who
have died from the Chinese coronavirus since the outbreak in that
country began.
The National Council of Resistance of Iran (NCRI), the largest
anti-regime dissident organization, claimed on Monday that nearly
15,000 people in the country have died of coronavirus infections,
about five times the death toll the Iranian regime officials claims
to have counted.
Tehran has documented 44,605
cases of Chinese coronavirus within its borders and claims 2,898
people have died since the outbreak began there. In addition to the
NCRI, many observers – including local Iranian officials – have
disputed this number, most simply by noting that adding up the
number of cases and deaths recorded by each Iranian region results
in a much larger number than the one documented by the
federal government.
According to al-Arabiya,
13 Iranian officials are currently struggling to overcome a
coronavirus infection in addition to the 17 who already
died. The Saudi outlet claims to have gotten the numbers
by compiling reports from Iranian state media on individual
officials who have been confirmed as carriers. The coronavirus
patients reportedly span nearly all areas of the Iranian regime,
including the clergy and the Iranian military, which Supreme Leader
Ayatollah Ali Khamanei tasked with coronavirus response. Some of
the dead publicly blamed the United States for the virus before
their demise.
Among those listed as living elite coronavirus patients are
well-known cases such as Vice President Eshaq Jahangiri, Tourism
Minister Ali Asghar Mounesan, and Deputy Health Minister Iraj
Harirchi, who appeared on
television to urge Iranians not to be concerned about the virus
shortly before announcing he had tested positive. Harirchi appeared
sickly on television, exhibiting signs of fever and cough.
The high number of individuals in the upper ranks of the Iranian
dictatorship who have tested positive reflect growing evidence that
the outbreak is completely out of control in the country, far from
the minor challenge that Khamenei claimed it
at the beginning of the month, urging Iranians to wage “jihad”
against the virus.
The NCRI, in its daily update using sources on the
ground in the country, stated on
Monday that it has evidence of over 14,200 dying of coronavirus
infections nationwide. This number aligns with
the prediction of a World Health Organization (WHO) officials this
month that Iran’s official numbers are likely only about a fifth
of the true total of cases.
Radio Farda, the Persian wing for Radio Free Europe/Radio
Liberty, has kept its own estimates and documented over 66,000
cases and over 4,000 deaths, but by its own admission has
stated these estimates are “very conservative, and the real
number of the victims could be much higher.”
Radio Farda added that Iran is not counting any cases in
Qom, the epicenter of the outbreak, and Tehran, its largest city,
towards its official tally, leaving out what is likely the vast
majority of its cases.
The NCRI noted that many of the deaths it has documented are
occurring in Iran’s medical community, leaving a rapidly
shrinking number of health experts available to treat patients.
“The high rate of coronavirus infection in the medical
community and the death of many of them, as well as the high rates
of coronavirus death in comparison to other countries, will remain
as a great question and disappointment,” NCRI quoted Mostafa
Moein, the head of the Supreme Medical Council of Iran, as saying
in a letter to Iranian President Hassan Rouhani, who answers to
Khamenei.
NCRI’s claims appear corroborated by reports of
desperation in Iran’s hospitals and morgues, and satellite
footage of government workers digging what appear to be mass graves to
contain the bodies of all the coronavirus dead. Iran has denied
that the widely available satellite footage is real.
Khamenei put the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), a
U.S.-designated terrorist organization, in charge of containing the
virus, including developing a
vaccine and manufacturing medical equipment. There is no known
evidence the IRGC has any jihadists within its ranks with the
background and experience to develop a vaccine for a new
pathogen.
Khamenei, along with many members of the Iranian government and
state media, have claimed that evidence exists that the Chinese
coronavirus is a biological weapon deployed to attack America’s
enemies. Some have accused “Zionists” of developing the weapon,
a term typically used by Tehran officials as an insult against the
Israeli government. Former President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad published a
belligerent open letter to the United Nations this month demanding
that it “identify the lab” that developed the virus.
Global public health experts agree that
the virus originated in Wuhan, central China, last year, likely at
a “wet market” where individuals are allowed to kill and sell
wild animals for consumption. No evidence exists corroborating the
claim that the virus is a U.S. biological weapon, a claim the
Chinese Communist Party has developed to deflect blame away from
itself.
The post
Reports Claim Iran may have Lost Nearly 15,000 People Including 17
Officials due to Coronavirus appeared first on Harbingers Daily.
