Iran’s Press TV, which represents the regime’s English-language propaganda, has been pushing antisemitic conspiracies about the coronavirus to distract from the country’s mishandling of the pandemic.
Iran’s Health Ministry reported 49 new coronavirus deaths, the highest single-day toll of those killed by COVID-19 in the country since mid-February. Tehran had acknowledged 194 Iranians have died from the fast-spreading disease. But observers believe the true number may be far higher.
Over the last several days, Iran has pushed several reports claiming that “Zionists” were behind the coronavirus. Press TV also quoted the same website that was at the centre of an antisemitic article from 2017 that claimed “America’s Jews are driving America’s wars.”
Press TV claimed that “Zionist elements developed a deadlier strain of coronavirus against Iran.” Although the report claimed to reference a foreign “academic,” it fits the pattern of Iran using foreign experts to give the regime’s own views a patina of authority. The agenda of Tehran has been three-fold since the coronavirus outbreak began to affect Iran in mid-February. Iran initially denied that there was a virus outbreak so that it could increase voter turnout for the February 21 election.
In late February, it turned out that some of Iran’s leading politicians and key insiders were infected because the virus had spread from the holy city of Qom to Tehran. To make up for the initial cover-up, the regime shifted its narrative to blaming US sanctions for its inability to control the virus. Already regime leaders were beginning to compare the virus to sanctions.
Iranian President Hassan Rouhani had first downplayed the virus, claiming that like sanctions, it looked worse than it was. Then, Foreign Minister Javad Zarif argued that the sanctions had “drained Iran’s resources needed in the fight against” the virus. He called it “medical terrorism.”
However, the IRGC had other ideas. Its leader, Hossein Salami, began telling people the virus was “biological warfare” derived from the US. “We are now dealing with a biological war,” he said. He argued it “may be the product of American biological warfare.”
Iran’s regime only knows this talking point: Blame it on the US and Israel. From regional security to the coronavirus, it has pushed the same narrative. For COVID-19, it has relied on foreign antisemitic conspiracies to add weight to misinformation about the origins of the virus.
