Iran COVID-19 Crisis: Mullahs’ Desperate Struggles To Avoid an Uprising
Written by
Shamsi Saadati
Iran’s Covid-19 death toll rapidly rises. Even the regime’s engineered coronavirus numbers indicate the depth of the crisis. “All offices, banks, and businesses will be closed from Monday until next Saturday,” said the spokesperson of the regime’s Covid-19 Combat Task Force.
The regime’s new president, Ebrahim Raisi, announced on Saturday that the import of 30 million doses of vaccine had been approved. “But experts believe that to control the current undesirable Covid-19 situation, we should procure 60 million doses of vaccine,” Raisi added.
"They took my husband away from me because they didn't let us get coronavirus vaccines," says this grieving widow.#Iran #COVID19 pic.twitter.com/BzlSJ2J3zH
— People's Mojahedin Organization of Iran (PMOI/MEK) (@Mojahedineng) August 12, 2021
But what has happened in the last few days that regime authorities, who have been implementing an inhumane Covid-19 policy directed by their Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei, to promptly speak of people’s safety?
Khamenei banned the entry of credible Covid-19 vaccines in January 2021. In March 2020, he said, “We shouldn’t make this coronavirus such a big issue.” The regime authorities followed Khamenei’s lead in downplaying the crisis and speaking against vaccination.
What has prompted Khamenei to suddenly appear on TV on August 11 and calling the Covid-19 a “savage virus” and that it should be the regime’s “priority”? It wasn’t Khamenei who called this deadly virus a test and a blessing.
Following the major Iran protests in November 2019, which rattled the regime’s foundation, Khamenei was desperately awaiting a savior to protect his regime from people’s uprisings. That savior was the coronavirus outbreak, which the regime turned into a major humanitarian crisis by deception and inaction.
The tragedy of Iran coronavirus outbreak is not too big: Ali Khamenei, the regime’s supreme leader
With the spread of the new Covid-19 Delta variant and its tsunami of deaths, the situation is out of Khamenei’s hands. This situation is what Raisi on Saturday described as the “undesirable situation,” and Khamenei warned about the “upsurge” of the virus. Indeed, Khamenei and Raisi are not concerned by the deadly effects of the virus on Iran’s society, and the Covid-19 is still their ally.
They are afraid of people’s backlash. Videos circulating on social media show a young woman grieving for her husband, saying: “Khamenei burn in hell. You took my dearest from me. I will take revenge.” The Iranian people’s hatred increases parallel with the death and infection rate.
When protests erupted in Khuzestan province and soon spread across dozen cities, with people chanting “death to the dictator,” Khamenei and his regime officials understood they could no longer use the Covid-19 outbreak to quell the society. Raisi saw people’s hatred once he visited a pharmacy, and one person shouted at him that “why teenagers in the United States are being vaccinated, but there is no vaccine in Iran.”
The Covid-19 outbreak is added to other economic and social crises and could spark protests and lead to the explosion of Iran’s restive society. This inevitable outcome has threatened the regime authorities.
In other words, Khamenei sows the wind, and he will reap the whirlwind.
Iran COVID-19 Crisis: Mullahs’ Desperate Struggles To Avoid an Uprising