Analysis by PMOI/MEK
Iran, March 5, 2020—In remarks at his cabinet meeting on Wednesday, Iranian regime president Hassan Rouhani complained about revelations of the Iranian Resistance about his government’s secrecy on the coronavirus outbreak that has overtaken the country. “The enemies give false statistics about coronavirus and lie and publish false comments and say our government does not tell the truth to the people.”
“From day one the Health Ministry was told to give people all information and statistics at the disposal of the people and to not hide anything, and people must be attentive since the enemies show no mercy in spreading these things on social media,” Rouhani added.
Rouhani’s claim contrast with comments made by healthcare workers and other officials who have admitted that the regime knew of the virus weeks before it officially announced it. The regime refrained from giving information to the people for fear of a low voter turnout in the February 21 parliamentary elections as well as low participation in pro-regime rallies held on February 11, the anniversary of the 1979 Revolution.
Ten days ago, Rouhani had said that the coronavirus crisis will be solved by Saturday February 29, 2020. But on Wednesday, by canceling all foreign institutions travels to Iran, he said: “This illness is pervasive and has spread to all provinces.”
This is while in all countries, since three or four weeks ago, authorities have been informing people before the first deaths. But in Iran, authorities only acknowledged the coronavirus outbreak after two people died in Qom.
The Iranian regime’s president continued: “Some people make our society nervous. I ask all our news agencies, especially the radio and television to stand firm against enemies in the social media and other foreign news agencies and explain the truth to our people. The worst thing is that the enemies use the outbreak of a virus against our government and try to take people’s trust and peace away and say our government doesn’t tell the truth.”
On March 1, 2020 the state-run news agency IRNA quoted Hamid Baeidinejad, the Iranian regime ambassador to the United Kingdom, pinpointed one of the mullahs’ main concerns. “The network affiliated to the MEK, through planning a news policy, seeks to place the people before a dead-end.”
“The members of the MEK and hostile networks are constantly spreading propaganda that we are in an International isolation and no country is willing to send urgent help to Iran and that we have rejected aid gifted from western countries at the cost of people’s lives. The aim of this propaganda is to creating distrust between the us and the people,” continued Baeidinejad.
Ironically, Rouhani and his officials have been giving confusing and controversial remarks about the real scale of the coronavirus epidemic. While Iranian authorities claim that less than 100 people have died of the deadly virus, the People’s Mojahedin Organization of Iran (PMOI/MEK) has obtained reports that indicate more than 1,300 casualties so far. These reports have been corroborated with local sources across Iran. Furthermore, statements made by officials at health centers show that have acknowledged the scale of the disaster is much more than the regime admits.
Yet other reports obtained by MEK as well as other media outlets show that regime authorities have ordered healthcare workers and doctors to downplay the spread of the virus. In other cases, physicians and nurses have been threatened with prosecution in case they speak to the media about the coronavirus outbreak.
While the regime tries to cover up the disaster it helped create, the people of Iran continue to wither and die in their homes and in the streets.
