Iran is “scaling back” on terrorist activities in the Middle East due to coronavirus outbreak, the Israel Defense Forces indicated on Monday.
“There are countries who have gotten it way worse than us with this corona[virus] story, and as a result their activities are at a slower pace,” IDF Spokesman Hidai Zilberman told reporters without naming Iran.
The confirmation comes amid reports of senior commanders of Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), the regime’s military arm, and the pro-Iranian Lebanese terror militia Hezbollah contracting the virus.
“Hezbollah members were reportedly infected with the highly transmissible contagion after coming into contact with affected Iranian military officials during a meeting in Beirut last week,” Israel broadcaster i24News reported.
Several IRGC top operatives have succumbed to the disease, including a senior commander, Nasser Shabani, and former head of its Political Bureau, Farhad Tazari. Mohammad Haj Abolghasem, commander of the IRGC-affiliated Basij Forces, also died of the virus. He was known as the “butcher of Tehran” for his role in the bloody clampdown of the recent anti-regime protests, in which more than 1,500 Iranian were murdered.
News website The Times of Israel reported IDF Spokesman’s remark:
The Israel Defense Forces indicated Monday its primary foe in the region, Iran, was curbing its activities as it grapples with a major outbreak of the coronavirus.IDF Spokesperson Hidai Zilberman told reporters that the military noted a decrease in the amount of activity in the region by Israel’s enemies, without specifically naming Iran.“There are countries who have gotten it way worse than us with this corona[virus] story, and as a result their activities are at a slower pace,” Zilberman said.Iran is among the countries hardest hit by the coronavirus, with hundreds of people reported killed, including a senior cleric on Monday, and at least another 14,000 people infected with the disease.The real numbers may be even higher, as some have questioned the government’s reporting.Cabinet ministers, members of parliament, Revolutionary Guard members and Health Ministry officials have been infected, compounding fears about Iran’s response to the global pandemic, which has infected nearly 170,000 people worldwide and killed more than 6,500.Iran is widely considered Israel’s main enemy in the region, controlling and funding terror groups across the Middle East, notably the powerful Hezbollah terrorist militia in Lebanon.In recent years, Tehran has worked to establish a permanent military presence to Israel’s north in Syria, both for its own forces and for proxy militias. Israel has stated that it will not tolerate this effort and has launched hundreds of airstrikes against Iranian and Iranian-backed forces in Syria.
Other terrorist figures infected by the coronavirus include the Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Khamenei’s advisor, Ali Akbar Velayati, who is wanted for masterminding the 1994 car bombing of the Jewish center in Buenos Aires, Argentina in which 85 people were killed.
Terrorist-turned-diplomat, Hossein Sheikholeslam, who interrogated American hostages after the storming of the U.S. embassy in Tehran forty years ago, has died of the disease. Iranian Vice President Masoumeh Ebtekar, who acted as the spokeswoman for the embassy hostage-takers, is receiving treatment after contracting the virus.
According to media reports, Iran has 32,000 cases, and more than 1,300 Iranians have so far died of coronavirus. The outbreak has now reached 30 provinces out of 31 in the country.
The IRGC is culpable for exposing the Iranian public to the Chinese virus by running flights into China despite considerable warnings, investigative media reports show. The regime is now busy covering up the extent of the outbreak. Recent satellite images show regime authorities digging up mass graves to bury victims some 80 miles south of the capital Tehran.
Video: Satellite images show the Iranian regime digging mass graves
[Cover image via YouTube]
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