This will be my last article for Uwidata before the Persian new year arrives. As always, I deeply trust almighty God’s grace and that Imam Mahdi (MGHHR) will reappear to save human beings.
The reappearance of Imam Mahdi is the Shia Muslim belief that the twelfth Imam will return at an unspecified time and establish an Islamic state of peace and justice.
It has been a month since our dear country, like 160 other nations, has been hit by the coronavirus outbreak. The entire capacity of the country has been engaged in recent weeks to counter the pandemic disease.
Naturally, those countries facing the virus are utilizing all of their facilities, capacity and energy to counter the disease… However, Iran’s story is also different from others.
The strong-willed Iranian people are in the last days of a very difficult Persian year (March 21, 2019-March 19, 2020) as our enemies have resorted to a maximum pressure policy against us. They have imposed debilitating sanctions, launched military aggression and assassinated our top military commander, among numerous other provocations.
COVID-19, which originated in Wuhan last December, has spread to more than 162 countries and territories. The global death toll from the virus as of March 17 passed 7,332 with more than 185,387 cases confirmed worldwide, according to the World Health Organization.
As of Tuesday, the COVID-19 death toll in Iran is 988, while 16,169 Iranians are confirmed to have been infected with the virus.
In order to stop the spread of the disease, schools and universities have been shut down and cultural and religious gatherings have been cancelled. Public places, buses and metros are being regularly disinfected and sanitized.
The resolved Iranian people are coping with the pandemic while also facing devastating sanctions and psychological warfare intended to intensify the maximum pressure campaign against us.
The most important element of this campaign, according to the evil minds behind it, is the psychological operation targeting ordinary Iranians. The campaign was first and foremost intended to create a sense of hopelessness to force the population to surrender.
Keeping with the ongoing disproportionate war against Iran, our enemies have seen the coronavirus outbreak as a chance to inflict further losses in our society– however our enemies have not accounted for the power of the almighty God, which is far superior to all earthly power.
A quick review of subjects on which certain rancorous media outlets have been concentrating over the past weeks will help disclose certain facts and biases:
These media outlets mocked the developments in Iran after the country’s media reported that Deputy Health Minister Iraj Harirchi contracted coronavirus. However, they kept mum on the same developments when the British health minister and 10 French parliamentarians were infected.
They exaggerated the shortage of face masks and disinfectant gel in Iran to paint the situation as a catastrophe amid the virus outbreak– yet, when the same happened in the US, they barely took note.
There was a hue and cry across media sources that Iran should close its borders, accusing Tehran of being the main source of the spread of the virus. However, now we are witnessing that both the US and numerous European countries have also had to close their borders in order to prevent the transition of the virus!
They termed the virus-related death of Iranian political and religious figures a crisis… however, after a short time, the Canadian prime minister’s wife, the US Secretary of Defense and his deputy also contradicted COVID-19 and had to be quarantined.
The media lied, saying that the Grand Ayatollahs in the holy city of Qom had banned fulfilment of healthcare instructions. Later, images of some American priests were released encouraging people to continue handshaking with each other regardless of the virus outbreak.
They distributed a video of the man licking the holy shrine of Masoumeh (AS) to make it seem that Iranians did not take the threat seriously, but later a video went viral showing a Swiss journalist licking the asphalt with the same mind-set.
They claimed that Iranians are superstitious. However, a TV program later released a video from a Christian priest claiming that he has the power to cure people with the virus.
They called Iranians rumormongers, but hundreds of photos were released showing fights among people in Western countries while panic purchasing toilet paper, to the point that some countries’ officials suggested using water pitchers instead.
They claimed that the Iranians are unable to fight the coronavirus outbreak and have resorted to praying, but a photo of the mass prayers of US government officials in the White House is what went viral.
All of these baseless accusations have hardly damaged the reputation of Iranian society.
Undoubtedly, if European countries or the US experienced even a small amount of the vast brutal sanctions Iranians have lived with for the last 40 years, they would collapse in short order.
It should not be noted that Iran has performed a wide range of anti-coronavirus measures across the country which, according to the World Health Organization (WHO), none of the so-called advanced American or European countries would have been able to do under such devastating sanctions and pressure.
The above mentioned “evidence” are just a small portion of what our enemies have leveled against us within the framework of perpetual war.
No one can ignore that self-confidence and a rich culture, as well as deep humanitarian and religious beliefs have turned the Iranians into a resilient and pioneering nation. The sacrifices of the country’s medical staff and those from other walks of life have helped the government to counter the pandemic more effectively, but such valuable characteristics have no place in the societies which are based on ideologies such as humanism and materialism.
Iran is the only country whose people flock spontaneously to assist their government overcome such crises. In the US, people have been seen in long queues to buy guns fearing from possible chaos following the outbreak.
This article is an attempt to unearth our enemies’ real objectives in resorting to information and psychological warfare against Iran. They want to push our society into reliance on fabricated statistics and data, comic but humiliating texts and fake news to undermine our unity.
These difficult days will certainly pass and we will again gain the upper-hand, but the world should realize that we Iranians have stood up against global oppressors. Those countries that agreed to the maximum pressure on Iran should know that the situation will change and we will bounce back: however, we will never do to Western governments what they have done to our people.