Iran’s state-run news agency ISNA: “Coronavirus outbreak and deaths overpassing 300, reminds the need to supply and inject the ‘vaccine’.”
Bad situation, warnings, and alarming bells are just some of the expressions seen these days in Iran’s state-run media warning each other about a critical situation that never have been seen in Iran’s government.
Eight of the state-run outlets, Etelaat, Hamshahri, Jomhouri Eslami, Donya-e-Eghtesad, Shargh, Etemad, Sazandegi and Haft-e-Sobh on May 17 in a joint editorial, referring to the most important socio-political debates of the day, ‘warned’ the entire establishment about the consequences of the current situation. The main person who was being warned was the regime’s supreme leader Ali Khamenei.
“Once upon a time, the press avoided using the word crisis in its headlines so as not to add to the anxiety of the people; But now this word is the most commonly and widely used word in publications. These days, the number of crises is uncountable.” (Hamshahri, May 17, 2021)
Now after more than a year after the coronavirus spread in Iran, and the regime’s negligence which lead to the death of more than 293,200 people according to the Iranian resistance, these outlets are warning the regime’s president Hassan Rouhani not to miss the opportunity and start the public’s vaccination as soon as possible.
Without mentioning the main culprit of this situation, which is the regime’s supreme leader Ali Khamenei who banned the government from importing globally reliable vaccines, the state-run media are now implicitly begging the government to act to prevent the people’s fury and protests.
In their joint editorial they wrote:
“It is now clear that rapid vaccination of the masses is the only way to curb the disease and return society to normal life and move the cycles of the economy. We are aware of the impact of oppressive sanctions on the functioning of community health institutions. We are also aware of the importance of trying to obtain a domestically produced vaccine and we appreciate all the efforts made in this field, but we consider it necessary to express our deep concern for the health of the people, considering two issues:
- “Contradictory news and information about vaccine imports indicates a fragmentation in the critical decision-making system. While the President calls for the removal of all obstacles to the importation of vaccines, the delay of the executing agencies has raised concerns that there may not be a single will and decision in this regard. The private sector, meanwhile, attributes its failure to import not to external reasons, but to internal barriers.
- The political situation in the country and the imminence of the presidential election, based on the experience of all previous periods, has become another reason for our concern. As the first months of the next administration deal with settlement issues, there is a serious concern that the confrontation with the coronavirus will suffer from this political change, and thus there will be irreparable risks to the health of Iranian citizens.
We urge the President, as the country’s chief executive, to hold national committees with the government, the private sector and civil society as soon as possible responsible for investigating the vaccine immediately and planning for its transparent distribution and rapid injection.
It is necessary to review the process of importing foreign vaccines once again and identify and eliminate its natural and abnormal problems and obstacles. Also, ensure that the mass production and production of domestic vaccines are not captured by the destructive competition of the manufacturing institutions.”
They further reflected their fear of the people’s protests, while predicting that after so many deaths they finally are concerned about the people’s health, warning the government:
“We warn that daily delays in this path cause us to increasingly waste time restraining the coronavirus and returning to normal life. End the general worry and anxiety arising from the lack of a clear vision of the situation ahead.” (State-run daily Hamshari, May 17, 2021)
