In Iran, every political, social, and economic issue becomes a confusing mess. Due to the government’s perspectives, all the subjects are considered security issues and there is no expertise.
Therefore, the subjects have no chance to find their real place, and political-security rivalries are sparked among them. And the coronavirus outbreak is one of the topics that has become very serious now. In this context, the pandemic is now the most crucial political-security issue for the government.
From the coronavirus’ transfer to Iran by Revolutionary Guards (IRGC)-owned Mahan Airlines planes to the officials’ deliberate silence at the beginning of the outbreak from Qom, and the resignation of two officials of Health Ministry in recent weeks, everything is due to the political and security nature of this issue.
In the meantime, these political and security challenges have contributed to the loss of more than 170,000 lives in Iran. The officials’ resignation is now revealing some of the realities behind the curtains of the coronavirus outbreak.
In recent months, Iran’s President Hassan Rouhani continuously bragged about the Islamic Republic’s progress fighting against the virus and advancing even countries like Germany and the USA.
Of course, Rouhani, due to his two characteristics, charlatanism and fraud, never provided any evidence or scientific proof. Now, after these two resignations, it is clear that he and his government are empty-handed behind the scenes.
After nine months of the political game, Health Minister Saeed Namaki revealed all the ministry’s research department in the field of the coronavirus were wrong. “98 percent of their research does not work,” he said.
In response to Namaki’s remarks, Reza Malekzadeh, Deputy Minister of Research and Technology of the Ministry of Health, resigned and unveiled a few more behind the scenes of lies and deception.
“You have shied away from accepting responsibility whenever the morbidity and mortality rate has increased. And whenever the statistics go down a bit, you claim to teach the world how to manage the coronavirus crisis, and you have recently talked about launching a vaccine production campaign in Iran,” Malekzadeh wrote.
Another aspect of these resignations, which shows how political the coronavirus in Iran is, and it depends on factional interests, is the regime’s security officials’ reaction in the state media.
The essence of these two people’s resignation has not yet dried up, the whole story of security and even espionage is being shown, and the cases are being opened in the usual way of regime’s propaganda.
On November 23, a Telegram channel affiliated to the IRGC demanded the arrest of the two resigned. This IRGC channel introduced Reza Malekzadeh as a person related to the ‘Zionist World Health Organization (WHO),’ writing: “Turned Iranian citizens into laboratory mice of the organization’s drugs.”
On the other hand, Rouhani’s faction seized the opportunity and tried to ruin the entire nine-month coronavirus crisis and Rouhani’s statistics on these two.
On Twitter, Alireza Moezzi, a member of the president’s office, tried to sacrifice Reza Malekzadeh because of the government’s mistakes. “Rouhani’s remarks were based on estimates by the Deputy Minister of Health,” he posted.
It can be seen how much the Health Minister and President were claiming the horn from the first day that all the coronavirus affairs are under control.
But when the politicalized coronavirus did not help the regime, they immediately sacrificed their subordinates. In the meantime, the coronavirus has now resulted in more than 170,000 casualties from Iran’s population.
A noteworthy point in these games, which can strengthen a prediction, is the beginning of political competition within the government, intending to prepare itself for the 2021 presidential election show.
In this show, the coronavirus has become a compromise between the interests of the factions and shows that from the beginning, there was no will or decision on the part of Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei and Rouhani to confront it, and everything that happened – like the example above—was a political and security game with life and existence of the people.
