Contrary to official claims, Chinese travelers continue to enter Iran
While officials in the Islamic Republic had announced that the entry of Chinese passengers into the country would be suspended, reports indicate that these passengers were being transferred to Iran from other airports.
According to images posted on social media, Chinese passengers in Istanbul, who have not been accepted by Turkish and other airlines, are queuing to board a plane operated by Mahan Airlines.
One of the witnesses in the video said that these passengers were supposed to be transited to Iran by Mahan Company and then returned to China.
This comes despite the fact that the authorities of the Islamic Republic had announced that the entry of Chinese passengers into Iran would be suspended. The Director General of Public Relations of Imam Khomeini Airport City Company had said regarding Mahan flights that the company had two flights to Shanghai and Guangzhou that had taken place yesterday at 12:00, but because those planes were Iranian nationals and had to return to the country, they returned to the country on Saturday morning and after that there are no direct flights to/from China at Imam Khomeini Airport until further notice.
These statements come as Bahram Parsai, a member of parliament, tweeted on Sunday, February 13: "Contrary to the government's decision, we are still witnessing the entry of passengers from China into Iran and the transfer of Chinese passengers from other airports around the world by Iranian airlines. Is the aviation organization autonomous and not subordinate to the government?"
He continued, writing that this defiance and the recent air accidents show that protecting incompetent managers is more important than people's lives.
In recent days, there have been reports of suspected cases of coronavirus in Iran, but Iranian health officials have strongly denied them. The head of the Center for Communicable Disease Management at the Ministry of Health announced the identification of six suspected cases of coronavirus in the provinces of Yazd, Tabriz, Qom and Tehran. A few hours after the report was published, Iranian officials claimed that all tests and investigations had been negative. Their quick statement came at a time when in some countries, including the United States, it has taken at least two days to investigate suspected cases.
Meanwhile, the presence of more than 70 Iranian students in the Chinese city of Wuhan, the source of the outbreak, has made headlines. They have been demanding to return to Iran for several days, but on Friday, authorities finally announced that they were preparing the ground for their return.
China has currently quarantined all cities in Hubei province, including Wuhan, the epicenter of the outbreak, to prevent the spread of the virus.
This is not the first time that the coronavirus has been observed in China or other countries. Previously, the Voice of America reported that the virus had claimed the life of an Iranian citizen in 2014.
Source: Voice of America
