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Home » Why are so many of Iran’s leaders sick with coronavirus?

Why are so many of Iran’s leaders sick with coronavirus?

The New Neo Posted on by

I’ve read quite a bit of coverage about how COVID-19 seems to be affecting a lot of people in Iran, and most of them mention that a great many Iranian officials appear to have been taken ill. Some have even died, including the so-called “Butcher of Tehran” (see this). Twenty-three members of the Iranian parliament are reported to be infected.

This is curious, and a different pattern even than in China, one of the other hardest-hit countries. Why are so many government officials ill in Iran? It’s almost as though they’d taken a cruise on the Diamond Princess, and I don’t mean that facetiously. What gives? Why such a high infection rate among Iran’s elite? One would expect a death rate on the high side among those infected because of their tendency to be of advanced age. But why were so many exposed already, so early in the epidemic?

I haven’t found much that can explain that expect for this possible reason:

Family members of Abolghasem told media that he contracted the virus “while on duty.” This is a interesting revelation given the media reports claiming that IRGC was operating flights into China as late as February 25.

“Revolutionary Guard owned Mahan Air has continued its flights to four Chinese cities in the past three weeks despite consistent denials by Iranian officials,” the Czech Republic-based Radio Farda reported last week. It is unclear why IRGC would operate secretive flights into China despite the known risk of outbreak.

The flights by Mahan Air are often linked to carrying Iranian terror operatives and weapons supplies. “Mahan Air has transported IRGC-QF [Quds Forces] operatives, weapons, equipment, and funds abroad” to supply terrorist groups across the Middle East,” U.S. Treasury said in a December 2019 report.

The high-profile death highlights the spread of coronavirus among the Iranian regime’s top brass. Iran’s former Deputy Foreign Minister Hossein Sheikholeslam also succumbed to the disease. Besides country’s Vice President Ebtekar, deputy Health Minister and 23 members of Parliament have also contracted the disease.

Was the virus introduced to the leadership of Iran because of close and personal involvement with China that was not curtailed even after the disease was spreading in China? Seems likely. And of course, no one believes a thing the Iranian leadership says anymore, so don’t look to them for an explanation.

Comments

Why are so many of Iran’s leaders sick with coronavirus? — 28 Comments

  2. I like this theory. Either Chinese operating in Iran passed it on, or Iranians traveling to China picked it up.

    Once that key person was infected he passed it along to others in his sphere.

    If the first guy infected was some schlub there’d be no story. But that guy was a higher up or was someone who met with a higher up.

  3. Doran: “The spread of the Coronavirus in Iran. The dense center is Qom, a major site of holy pilgrimage.”: Map image

    Also: “Akbar Dehghan, the director general of the seminary in Qom (the holy city of Iran), died today of the Corona virus. When the epidemic first erupted, he was among the staunch opponents of instituting a quarantine.” Photo

  4. I suppose everyone has seen the photos of pilgrims licking the doors and the sides of a shrine in Qom. Not that senior officials have been licking shrines. This theory of flights into and out of China is a reasonable explanation. China, of course, suppressed news about the virus for six to eight weeks.

  5. Also note that the common method of greeting is with the “air kiss”, so close contact.

    And, add an attitude that it can’t happen to me, close quarters, poor hygiene, smoking, air pollution, it all adds up to a bad medical situation.

  6. Covid-19 among the leaders in Iran?

    God (or Allah if you prefer) works in mysterious ways.

  8. I think it’s the proxemics.

    In both Middle Eastern and Italian cultures, there’s very little personal space during a conversation. It’s said in some Middle Eastern countries that you must stand “close enough to smell the breath” of the person you’re talking to.

    Great way to catch a droplet-spread infection.

  9. Recall that a high-official was at a Council meeting just before she displayed symptoms.
    “Iran’s Vice President Masoumeh Ebtekar, who acted as the spokeswoman for the U.S. embassy hostage-takers in 1979, was also among the infected, state-run newspaper confirmed.” – LI

    Even if the rulers aren’t licking shrines (and they may be), they interact with underlings who almost certainly are.

    Saudi Arabia is at least marginally more rational than Iran, and has banned pilgrims from coming to Mecca. Can’t tell if that includes people already in-country, but I suspect they will consider that soon.

    https://www.timesofisrael.com/iranian-vice-president-said-infected-with-coronavirus/
    (from Feb 27)

    From CNN earlier this week:

    9:54 a.m. ET, March 3, 2020
    8% of Iran’s parliament has tested positive for coronavirus, official says
    From CNN’s Ramin Mostaghim in Tehran
    Twenty-three members of Iran’s 290-member “Majlis” or parliament have tested positive for the novel coronavirus, according to Iran’s Deputy Parliament Speaker Abdul Reza Misri.

    That’s about about 8% of all members of parliament.

    From March 2:
    https://www.powerlineblog.com/archives/2020/03/coronavirus-takes-out-aide-to-irans-supreme-leader.php
    (Mirengoff)

    An adviser to Iran’s ruler Ayatollah Khamenei has died of coronavirus, according to Iranian state media. The deceased is Mohammad Mirmohammadi, age 71. He was a member of the Expediency Discernment Council (quite a name if the translation is accurate), which advises the Ayatollah and settles disputes with parliament.

    Other high-ranking Iranians reportedly have contracted the disease. They include vice president Masoumeh Ebtekar, better known as Sister Mary, the spokeswoman for the US Embassy hostage takers in 1979 and deputy health minister Iraj Harirchi. He heads a task force on the coronavirus and had tried to downplay the epidemic.

    In addition, Iran’s former ambassador to the Vatican reportedly died from the disease.
    …
    I wonder what Iran’s theologically-minded leaders make of the fact that their Islamic Republic has been hit so hard by the virus and the fact that some of its key leaders are among the victims. But then, I also wonder whether Iran’s leaders still take theology seriously, or whether, at this point, the theology is 99 percent scam.

    STEVE adds a question: If the Israelis do come up with a vaccine for the coronavirus as some reports suggest, will Iran purchase it?

    Lynn – God’s will be done.
    But I hope he can spare some of the population that have been so hopelessly lied to and abused by their leaders.

  12. This is pretty strong evidence that the Chinese are working closely with the Iranians, almost certainly on their nuclear program.

  13. It’s interesting to see the Iran-China interaction given the treatment of Uyghurs in China. There are two big groups, Hui and Uyghur. Both, I think are Sunni but the Uyghurs have been more violent.

  14. Amir Taheri, Gatestone Inst.: Iran: The Train Hits Something Hard

    After weeks of debate, the outgoing Majlis had rejected the budget with a clear majority. The “Supreme Guide”, however, needed the budget to release funds for the various military and security organizations on which the regime is built not to mention stipends for Bashar al-Assad, Hassan Nasrallah, the Houthis, Hamas, Islamic Jihad, Iraqi militias and kindred groups across the globe.

    In other words, Trump’s policy has forced the Islamic Republic to assume its true identity as a typical “Third World” regime based on the military-security apparatus with a pseudo-theocratic facade.

    The daily Kayhan, believed to reflect Khamenei’s views, claimed last Tuesday that, in a letter transmitted through the Swiss ambassador, Tehran had “indicated agreement” to return to a de facto recognition of “The Zionist regime”, disarming of the Lebanese branch of Hezbollah and end of support for Hamas.

    No longer enjoying access to massive amounts of easy money from oil exports, the Khomeinist leadership is growing daily more desperate to loosen the lasso thrown by the Trump administration. Always anxious not to lose face, it has modified aspects of its behavior, confirming the view that the Khomeinist train, which according to Mahmoud Ahmadinejad had no reverse gear, would stop only if it hits something hard.

    And related, since low oil prices hit Iran as well as Russia, both of which are due a comeuppance for their recent aggressions in Syria, and the Sauds are just the gangsters to deliver it: (h/t Mike Doran) Bloomberg: Saudis Plan Big Oil Output Hike, Beginning All-Out Price War

    Saudi Arabia plans to boost oil output next month to well above 10 million barrels a day, as the kingdom responds aggressively to the collapse of its OPEC+ alliance with Russia.

    The world’s largest oil exporter engaged in an all-out price war on Saturday by slashing pricing for its crude by the most in more than 30 years. State energy giant Saudi Aramco is offering unprecedented discounts in Asia, Europe and the U.S. to entice refiners to use Saudi crude.

    To which Doran says in part “[…] That’s good news for Trump, btw.”

  16. This is pretty strong evidence that the Chinese are working closely with the Iranians, almost certainly on their nuclear program.

    China’s had nuclear weapons technology for > 50 years. If they wanted Iran to have it, Iran would have it right now.

  17. Richard Saunders,

    “This is pretty strong evidence that the Chinese are working closely with the Iranians, almost certainly on their nuclear program.”

    At the very least, its like tracking groundwater with dye. Now we’re seeing exactly where the strongest ties are.

  18. Well, the coronavirus does have some benefits after all. It’s like Cuban socialized medicine. When Hugo Chavez, the president of Venezuela, went to Cuba for medical treatment, he died. Castro didn’t use the Cuban medical system. Castro always had a Spanish doctor fly to Cuba to treat him.

  19. The corona death rate in the solid-data West for those age 70-plus is about 10%.
    Surely some of the dead Iranians were old geezers who ran with Khomeini and Khamenei.

  20. Cornhead
    Mossad might be helping God.
    As they say, God helps those who help themselves.

  21. Neo,
    It’s very interesting report….

    May I add, Iranians (especially high ranking officials) control and engaging in trade and commercial business just as way controlling people and use this as a tool to get support by employ/ pay them and use them what the top like.
    The best practises can be seen across in Iraq and better in Lebanon Hezbollah (Hasan Nasrallah).

    So due to sanctions, Iran also trading with oil/ smuggling oil for sale by ships far from Iran and gulf area as some report suggesting oil smuggling by the Iranian regime for the need of cash, include vast trade with China which give the Mullah more power with money and weapon.

    To find more read Mullahs, Money, and Militias.pdf.

    LYNN HARGROVE on March 7, 2020 at 9:01 pm said:
    may GOD/Allah continue to work in mysterious ways.

    Ebtekar gained infamy as “Screaming Mary” when she served as the English-speaking mouthpiece of the hostage-takers who seized the US Embassy in Tehran in 1979, sparking the 444-day diplomatic crisis.

    During her propagandizing, she would walk through the embassy and urge the 52 hostages to describe their ordeal to a camera crew in positive terms, according to a report in The Atlantic.

    One of the hostages, US Army Sgt. Regis Regan became so fed up with her that he unleashed a diatribe, which led to a beating, the news outlet reported.

    Among the Hostage-Takers

    Fluent English-speakers were brought in, including Massoumeh Ebtekar, who became the voice of the gerogan-girha at daily press conferences with the world media and is now one of Iran’s Vice Presidents and the Minister of the Environment, and Hussein Sheikh al-Islam, who zealously interrogated the higher-level embassy staffers and CIA officers, and who is today a conservative member of the Majlis. For the young Iranians in charge of the compound, those days were heady and even romantic: Asgharzadeh met and proposed to his wife, Tahereh Rezazadeh, and Ebtekar met and ultimately married Muhammad Hashemi, one of the core group of leaders. But the days grew tedious, frustrating, and—when the failed U.S. rescue mission awakened the gerogan-girha to the dangers—frightening.

  22. here is a good place to get some perspective:
    https://coronavirus.jhu.edu/map.html

    The Iran leadership are involved with the chicoms…
    if you look on the map above, you will find that there is one way out of the way place in Russia with a few cases… want to guess what is going on there?

    here is a Rand analysis of China an Iran

    China and Iran
    Economic, Political, and Military Relations
    https://www.rand.org/pubs/occasional_papers/OP351.html

    you can download lists on Kaggle
    i have been trying to find databases with some better data (smoking, age, weight, height, etc) so as to make a AI app as a tool… but so far, the extra data is not available publicly at that level..

    oh… the SARS data is… but thats no help

    [and many of us are not aware that corona virus also is the source of colds]

  23. Iran’s military on alert as virus kills 77, sickens leaders

    Ayatollah Tabrizian, a prominent clergyman & a self-proclaimed expert in “Islamic medicine”, has published the following list on how to avoid #coronavirus:

    * Comb your hair thoroughly

    * Eat lots of apples & onions

    * Dip a cotton ball in oil & insert it in your anus
    https://twitter.com/GadflyPersia/status/1232140357397336065?s=20

    Beirut Observer reports that #Iranian sources revealed quoting a doctor in the medical team monitoring the health of Islamic Republic Supreme Leader #Khamenei in #Iran, that he succeeded in eliminating a sample of the deadly #coronavirus virus by a few drops of #Khamenei urine. https://twitter.com/HorLevnon/status/1230982153447583751 …
    Beirut Observer reports

  25. Seems that Russia “together” with Saudi Arabia have decided to detonate OPEC. The Putin-MBS two step? Or rather misstep (wonder if this means that Saudi refineries will once again find themselves on the receiving end of incoming ordnance.)…

    …and that Erdogan has decided to smash NATO.

    (Kimmie, too, seems to have a need to “act out”.)

    Why now?, one might want to ask, when there’s certainly enough global threat and financial instability to go around. When the world requires cooler heads.

    The belief in “turning crisis to opportunity” (if that’s what’s generating all this) at such a time would appear to be absolutely insane. Haven’t they learned that eventually, brinksmanship has repercussions?

    Interesting times….

  26. I read ( forgot where) that there is a nuclear facility 20 miles from Qom staffed with Chinese scientists.

  28. Art Deco — according to the Rand study linked by Artfldgr, the Chinese have assisted the Iranians with their nuclear program. “Assist” does not mean “give them everything.”

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