Analysis by PMOI/MEK
Iran, April 2, 2020—As Iran’s coronavirus crisis deepens, so does the regime’s fear of widespread protests. Therefore, Iranian regime officials, especially their president Hassan Rouhani, still consider deception and spreading lies as the only way to prevent another social upheaval.
“I don’t think any country has the situation of Iran, while the whole world faces hardest situation, we have about 20,000 empty hospital beds at our disposal,” Rouhani said in recent remarks.
Rouhani has also been constantly playing down the scale of the outbreak, claiming the number of deaths and new cases are declining, while real figures show that the situation is worsening by the day.
The paradox of the regime’s so-called “human rights campaign”
Ironically, in tandem with Rouhani’s efforts to tone down the significance of the coronavirus outbreak, the regime’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs and its lobbyists and apologists in the west are engaged in an intense propaganda campaign that portrays a totally different picture and aims to put pressure on the U.S. government to ease sanctions it has put in place against the regime’s funding of terrorism and weapons of mass destruction.
They tried to blame the sanctions for the coronavirus disaster and claim sanctions are the reason the regime is incapable of dealing with the outbreak. But Rouhani’s remarks daily remarks are opposite to this propaganda campaign that tried to use the American sensibility to relief the sanctions.
“Startling revelation by Iran’s President Hassan Rouhani that the regime’s concerted effort to lift U.S. sanctions isn’t about fighting the pandemic. It’s about cash for the regime’s leaders.” tweeted U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo on March 28 in response to Rouhani’s lies.
Startling revelation by #Iran‘s President @HassanRouhani that the regime’s concerted effort to lift U.S. sanctions isn’t about fighting the pandemic. It’s about cash for the regime’s leaders. pic.twitter.com/gyDFkgdYGI
— Secretary Pompeo (@SecPompeo) March 28, 2020
Previously Morgan Ortagus, Spokesperson of the U.S. State department tweeted that “It’s obvious, the regime’s interested in cash to fund its malign activities, not humanitarian aid to help its people.”
In another tweet, Ortagus said, “If the Iranian regime needs funds to deal with the coronavirus, it can access billions in Khamenei’s tax-free hedge fund. It’s not the sanctions. It’s the regime.”
Other analysts and observers have made it clear that if the Iranian regime is really sincere in its desire to help the people, it should start by slashing the billions of dollars it sends to terrorist groups such as Hezbollah, the Houthis, and Iraq’s Hashd al-Shaabi. It can also stop its expensive ballistic missile development projects, which are absorbing billions of dollars’ worth of the Iranian people’s money every year.
The main response to the mullahs’ regime
Despite the tough economic crisis, the Iranian regime officials still spend billions of Iranian people’s resources for their warmongering policies in Iraq, Syria and Lebanon every year while they can use the same resources for treatment and medical equipment. Therefore, the regime’s argument for blaming the sanctions for its own incompetence in dealing with the COVID-19 outbreak is a very weak one. It is now a known fact that the regime kept the lid on coronavirus cases because it didn’t want to negatively impact the pro-regime rallies on February 11 anniversary of the 1979 Revolution and the February 21 sham parliamentary election.
This criminal coverup played a critical role in the rapid spread of the coronavirus in Iran, making Iran the record-holder of coronavirus deaths across the world with more than 15,500 casualties by Wednesday. It has also turned Iran into the hotbed of COVID-19 in the Middle East region, spreading the virus to more than 17 countries. The Iranian regime leaders, including supreme leader Ali Khamenei and Rouhani are directly responsible for this crime against humanity and must face justice.
As Mrs. Maryam Rajavi, the President-elect of the National Council of Resistance of Iran has stipulated, “There is a single solution for Coronavirus, for poverty, for oppression and tyranny. That solution is overthrowing the mullahs’ religious dictatorship in its entirety. The spring of Iran’s freedom will be realized by us and by our own hands. It will never come for free. If we want it, we can and must achieve it. This is the test, the duty and the responsibility of each and every one of us.”
