Reporting by PMOI/MEK
Iran, April 8, 2020—After weeks of shutdown, the Iranian regime’s Majlis (Parliament) started to work on Tuesday, April 7.
Despite the escalating COVID-19 crisis, a plan presented by 80 members of the Majlis to shut down the country for a month in order to prevent further deaths was ruled out of Tuesday’s schedule citing the plan was “unconstitutional.” The decision was made by the office of regime supreme leader Ali Khamenei.
This is just the latest fact that proves the regime’s parliament is nothing, but a useless institution and the show is run by Khamenei and the Revolutionary Guards (IRGC).
In November 2019, the parliament wanted to stop the tripling of gasoline prices. The Majlis attempted to roll back the government’s decision, but Khamenei ruled it out. And earlier this year, Khamenei approved a budget bill that the Majlis opposed.
This once again showed that the regime’s parliament is nothing but a useless institution.
The Majlis Tuesday session was another scene of the regime’s internal conflicts and crisis.
Iranian regime Interior Minister Abdolreza Rahmani Fazli attended this session and resorted to delivering more lies in his remarks. “There are no concerns considering the process needed to control the virus across the country. Furthermore, the number of new cases throughout the country is decreasing,” he claimed.
However, Iranian regime Health Minister Saeed Namaki emphasized nothing is more devastating for the country’s economy and expressed his opposition to the Interior Minister’s remarks. The country is not in the phase of managing the illness and we have not reached containing and controlling coronavirus, he said, adding the regime should not get carried away or delusional about numbers.
Namaki requested a closed-door session and acknowledged for the first time that the virus separately entered Qom, central Iran, and Gilan, northern Iran. “23 epidemiologist teams are working to discover the illness’ source. What happened in Gilan is separate from what happened in Qom. We evaluated all these subjects and will raise the issues in a closed-door session,” he emphasized.
In this way, the coronavirus entered Iran through China via three venues: from Qom by Chinese religious Students, from Tehran Airport, and from dozens of flights of Mahan and Aseman Airways to Gilan and Astara.
But despite all of this, the Iranian regime, which relies heavily on China’s support, is not willing to question China’s non-transparency and admit to its own criminal secrecy.
The April 7 Majlis session and remarks made by various officials prove that the lives of the Iranian people have absolutely no value to the Iranian regime and the Supreme leader is ready to risk people’s lives in order to maintain his regime.
The daily Hamdeli clearly wrote: “The public opinion mentions that the government has chosen the security of the system above people’s health.”
Saeid Bastani, the spokesperson for the Industry Committee of the Majlis, said, “We are facing a paradox between health and economy. The Iranian economy can’t shut down for a month, and the shutdown must be shortened.”
“The post-coronavirus conditions present social, security, political and economic threats to the country, which have unfortunately been ignored. Neglecting the post-coronavirus conditions can have grave consequences for the country,” said MP Mohammad Mehdi Zahedi.
“This plan is a suicide for the fear of death!” said another MP, Shadmehr Kazemzadeh.
But this is, in fact, the reality. Neither Khamenei nor any other dictator is able to maintain his regime through the deliberate sacrificing of millions of people. Khamenei believes that due to the coronavirus outbreak, there will be no uprisings. But the economic crisis has become a serious problem for the regime. Khamenei might think that, like previous uprisings, if a post-coronavirus upheaval breaks out, he can suppress it with an iron fist. And therein lies his error.
During the January 2018 uprising, mostly the middle class were among the protesters. In November 2019 the poor took to the streets. But the coronavirus crisis has hit all segments of the population and the whole nation will confront the regime. The November 2019 uprising has weakened the regime and its security forces while the opposition forces have become more cohesive, more powerful and more determined in form of Iranian Resistance Units to overthrow the regime.
