Fox News report on the spread of coronavirus in Iran; no one believes the Iranian regime's statistics
The American news network Fox News has published a report on the increase in the number of coronavirus cases in Iran.
The report states that the number of people infected with the new coronavirus in the Middle East reached more than 10,000 on Thursday, March 12, with most of these cases related to Iran.
Fox News reports that the Islamic Republic of Iran has said that more than 360 people have died from the coronavirus and about 9,000 have been infected with the virus. According to the report, the Islamic Republic has been heavily criticized and accused of underreporting the number of people infected with the virus.
Matthew Schmidt, a political scientist and national security expert at the University of New Haven, told Fox News: “Nobody believes the statistics that are being released [by the regime] in Tehran.”
He has said that it is even possible that “Iran is now the epicenter of the outbreak. The government continues to misreport the number of cases and deaths. And this is both a matter of incompetence and a cover-up.”
Fox News reported in another part of the report that the Iranian government is now blaming the United States and the Trump administration's tough sanctions for its inability to combat the spread of the coronavirus. This is despite the fact that the United States had previously announced that it had issued exemptions from sanctions on Iran and allowed the Central Bank of Iran to conduct financial transactions to send some humanitarian services.
US Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin said on Wednesday, March 11, that US sanctions are not an obstacle to countries' humanitarian participation in combating the coronavirus in Iran.
Earlier, US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo announced that Iran had been offered assistance to combat the coronavirus. However, Iranian media recently reported that the Islamic Republic would not accept US assistance.
The widespread outbreak of coronavirus in Iran has now become a crisis, which on the one hand is due to concerns about concealment in announcing the real statistics, and on the other hand, mismanagement of the situation has made it difficult for the people. Insufficient medical equipment and even standard infrastructure have also caused difficulties in the treatment process in Iran.
The Islamic Republic, where many government officials and high-level management have now been infected with the coronavirus, instead of quarantining cities and closing religious places like other countries struggling with the spread of the virus, has simply said that the coronavirus must be taken seriously and is asking people not to leave their homes.
The United States has repeatedly condemned mismanagement, institutionalized financial corruption, and the plundering of Iranian assets by the regime's affiliates, calling them among the main causes of Iran's problems and the poor welfare of its people. Not long ago, US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo tweeted about the Islamic Republic's officials that they were involved in corruption instead of helping the people.
Source: Voice of America
