A number of neighboring countries have sent help, including the hostile Emirates. Only the United States remains firm on Tehran.
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A homeless man in an urban accommodation in Tehran. As a precaution against Covid-19, homeless people are disinfected and their body temperature is measured.
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The coronavirus pandemic is becoming increasingly dramatic in Iran. On Tuesday, the health authorities registered the highest number of victims within a day with 147 deaths. According to official information, 1135 people have died from the virus so far, 17 361 are ill. The mortality rate would be just under seven percent almost twice the global average, only in Italy is it higher.
As in other affected countries, the number of unreported cases in Iran is many times higher. The hospitals are now so overloaded that large field hospitals have been set up in several locations. The containment of the virus is made more difficult by the tough sanctions Washington has imposed on Iran. In an unusual step, Tehran now turned to the International Monetary Fund and asked for emergency aid equivalent to the equivalent of around five billion francs.
President Hassan Rohani wrote to the international community to take action against the sanctions regime. It was time for the international community to counter the “illegal and inhuman harassment” of the United States, that it should not allow the sanctions to impede Iran’s fight against the deadly virus, Rohani wrote according to Iranian state media. Foreign Minister Javad Zarif tweeted a list of medical devices and other needs, including 3.2 million test kits.
URGENT
Iranian care personnel are courageously battling # COVID19 on frontlines
Their efforts are stymied by vast shortages caused by restrictions on our people’s access to medicine / equipment
Most urgent needs are outlined below
Viruses don’t discriminate. Nor should human child pic.twitter.com/GpXCbsh001
– Javad Zarif (@JZarif) March 12, 2020
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Several countries have responded to the call for help from Tehran. In addition to Germany, France, Great Britain and Japan, Tehran received financial aid or medical equipment from Russia and China, perhaps the most important remaining purchaser of its oil, and from several neighboring countries. “The government and the Iranian people will never forget the help of their friends in need,” the Foreign Ministry spokesman tweeted.
Gesture from Abu Dhabi
Aid from the United Arab Emirates is particularly noteworthy. The ruling house there has played a leading role in the confrontation course towards Tehran in recent years, and iLast year, Iran blamed it for the attack on oil tankers off its coast. Since then, however, it has carefully extended feelers to Tehran. And now it is using the corona crisis for a humanitarian gesture. The ruling house sent a total of 32 tons of urgently needed equipment with two air force cargo aircraft. Foreign Minister Sheikh Abdullah bin Zayed Al Nahyan called Zarif. He assured the Iranians of the support of the Gulf state the foreign ministry in Abu Dhabi announced.
Numerous experts, including sworn critics of the Iranian regime, are demanding a similar gesture from American President Donald Trump. “It would be a silver lining if Covid-19 led to the beginning of global diplomacy, including between the United States and Iran,” Barbara Slavin of the Atlantic Council wrote in a debate article. While the US Department of Commerce has taken some steps to facilitate the sale of medical supplies to Iran, there are no signs that the Trump administration is rethinking its “maximum pressure” course.
Time is running out
Secretary of State Mike Pompeo immediately made it clear that the government was not thinking of changing course. Washington added several foreign companies and Iranians to the sanctions list on Tuesday. For his part, Pompeo asked Tehran to release all detained Americans. However, he will hardly be able to achieve this by tightening sanctions.
Iran has temporarily released tens of thousands of prisoners since the onset of coronavirus. The conditional amnesty also benefited British Iranian citizen Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe on Tuesday. She can spend the next two weeks at home with an ankle bracelet. In addition to several Americans, several other foreigners are in custody.
From Washington’s point of view, the previous reliefs, including the Swiss-launched humanitarian transaction mechanism, are sufficient to enable Iran to import vital goods. However, according to experts, the mechanisms work far too slowly to deal with a crisis as severe as the corona pandemic. Iran desperately needs the help of the International Monetary Fund, says Esfandyar Batmanghelidj, author of the blog «Bourse and Bazaar». The aid can be deposited in European banks, which not only makes payments easier, it also prevents Tehran from misusing the funds.
But the Iranian leadership is also challenged. It has been hesitant to take measures to curb the spread of the virus. And even now, it is not ready for drastic steps like setting up restricted areas. According to researchers from the prestigious Sharif University in Tehran, it would be high time for such a step. In a computer simulation, they calculated various scenarios. Accordingly, even in the worst case, more than 12,000 Iranians will probably fall victim to the pandemic.
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