It is becoming clear that Iran’s intimate strategic links with China and flights to and from China – which continued throughout February and March – were a major factor in Iran’s pandemic explosion.
Iran’s coronavirus infection rate has made it a virus hot spot in the region. The Iranian regime has now “officially” reported nearly 3,000 deaths, but many experts believe the real numbers may be far higher. Iran has been censoring, threatening and imprisoning Iranians who reveal real statistics to the media.
How did Iran get here? Despite claims that travel bans don’t work and are ineffective in the global battle against China’s Wuhan Coronavirus (COVID-19) – Iran is a perfect example proving those claims false.
Even as Iran’s Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei falsely dismissed the deadly COVID-19 outbreak as “a biological attack,” his theocratic regime continued military flights to China – potentially as part of the clandestine relationship between Iran’s Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) and China’s People’s Liberation Army (PLA) and other Chinese government entities. As America.gov notes, these clandestine flights clearly put the Iranian people, and the greater Middle East, at greater risk of the rapidly spreading pandemic.
According to the WSJ, Iranian health officials have said Chinese workers in the religious city of Qom are a likely source of the virus in the country. Iranian travelers, many of them religious pilgrims, then carried the virus to at least 15 other countries, the World Health Organization (WHO) and governments in those countries say.
Various reports indicate that the “top culprit” was Iran’s Mahan Air, a U.S.-sanctioned airline that the IRGC reportedly controls. The IRGC uses the airline to transport weapons, money and supplies, as well as export terrorism. Radio Farda reported that this airline flew at least 55 round-trip flights to cities in China between February 4 and February 23. These flights violated the Iranian government’s publicly stated ban on flights to China announced January 31. The IRGC leadership reports directly to Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei, not the official Iranian government.
Iran’s rapidly spreading pandemic also highlights the extensive overt and clandestine strategic links between Iran and China. The WSJ reports that these “flights may have continued, at least in part, to support the regime’s strategic partnership with China, including nuclear power and railway projects near Qom, which has seen the brunt of the COVID-19 outbreak in Iran.” However, clandestine links between the IRGC and PLA involving illicit weapons research and deliveries cannot be ruled out either.
According to the South China Morning Post, “China not only sold Iran small arms but supplied it with tactical ballistic and anti-ship cruise missiles such as the Silkworm. Chinese design and technology can be seen in many Iranian missile series, from the short-range Oghab and Nazeat missiles to the long-range Shahab.” The fact that so many senior Iranian officials and IRGC leaders have been infected by COVID-19 may provide a clue as to the level of those links.
Meanwhile, the WSJ notes, the Chinese presence in Iran is ubiquitous and many Iranians are directing their anger at the regime for making the country dependent on China, and at China for bringing the illness to their country in the first place. “The Chinese are everywhere,” said Ali, a 43-year-old kitchenware seller in Tehran, “When you put all your eggs in one basket, this is what you get.”
It is ironic that Iran’s close strategic links with China may also be the reason so many of Iran’s leaders are now sick or dying.
Want to know more about the latest updates from every state as the coronavirus pandemic continues? Explore our interactive map:
Paul Crespo is a defense and national security expert. He served as a Marine Corps officer and as a military attaché with the Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA) at US embassies worldwide. He holds degrees from Georgetown, London, and Cambridge Universities. Paul is also CEO of SPECTRE Global Risk, a security advisory firm, and a Contributor to American Defense News.
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I’m filing this one under “poetic justice.”
May this be the beginning of the end for this evil regime!!!
From the article: “The Chinese are everywhere,” said Ali, a 43-year-old kitchenware seller in Tehran, “When you put all your eggs in one basket, this is what you get.”
The USA is learning this too (all our eggs in one basket). The USA MUST divest itself from China in every way, starting with ALL our pharma mfg being brought back to the USA. Next should be computer chips in our telephones and military equipment. The Chinese govt is EVIL, not stupid. If we can eliminate our independence on China for goods, we can make America stronger and China weaker, simultaneously.
First we MUST eliminate the 114,000 Chinese students in America, going to college, stealing our secrets and inventions………… domestic and military. After several decades of their thieft. Many work in the laboratories connected to their classes, on secret programs funded by the American Government? We are finally telling the American Public of their ever presence…… even Diane Finstein’s Driver listened to Finstein’s phone conversations for 20 years, and pasted the data to his handler. We must tell foreigners to go home, during this trial by Chinese Virus. They are still developing virus’s. What will their next strike the West? Ahhhhh, next Fall, just in time for the next flu season. Every year, China develops the new germ, bacteria, or virus to try out on the West. We have some eliminations to take care of ??