While governments worldwide are trying to be as transparent as possible with their people right now in an effort to fight coronavirus (COVID-19), the Iranian regime has taken the opposite approach and is outright lying in order to hide the spread and scale of the outbreak.

The regime claimed that over a hundred cities and rising were virus-free, so religious sites could be reopened, but the MEK advises that “no areas in the country [are] clear of COVID-19” and “it would be impossible to declare any area as clear” while there are no travel restrictions in place and even the regime admits that some areas are still being hit hard.

The MEK said that many in the country, including medical staff and government officials, are worried the short and lax lockdown has already begun to cause a second wave of the virus.

These contradictions can be seen most starkly in the provinces of Isfahan and Sistan and Baluchestan, where the Ministry of Health declared nine and six cities, respectively, to be white. In this context, white means that there have been no new deaths or hospital admissions in two weeks and that the number of people recovering has increased.

In Isfahan, the deputy dean of the University of Medical Sciences said the whole province was red, which means that the infection shows no sign of slowing down. While the dean of the University of Medical Sciences of Zahedan, Sistan, and Baluchestan, said that the province is probably just at the beginning of the second peak.

The MEK wrote: “Medical workers across the country are warning the Iranian government that the statistics are still on the increase and that another wave of infections is on the way. They are saying that the upcoming weeks could prove to be even more deadly than the first wave and that the peak has not been reached yet.”

So why is the regime so eager to reopen religious sites considering that the coronavirus is not under control and this could kill millions more?

Well, the MEK cites several reasons. They wrote that the closure has caused the regime to lose huge sums of income, which are gathered when the Iranian people donate to religious sites, and the regime needs to have its Friday propaganda sermons reinstated with the goal of influencing the people and promoting its policies.

The regime has tried and largely failed, to use the Coronavirus outbreak to maintain its shaky grasp on power, but this will not work.

The MEK wrote: “The Iranian people and their resistance (MEK), however, are more determined than ever to see the regime collapse. There is no denying that the regime is criminally neglectful and that it has no place in this world.”

 

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