- Alireza Zali, head of the National Coronavirus Combat Taskforce (NCCT) in Tehran: “When the experts of the World Health Organization came to Iran, we constantly asked them to admire the Iranian health system in the media. We concealed the COVID-19 death statistics from them. The Japanese Ambassador told me that the Iranian Ambassador had not sought the vaccine at all. We only have enough vaccines for five days. We will have much more bitter news in the coming weeks, and things will get much worse. (ISNA news agency, August 12, 2021)
- Javad Zarif, regime’s former Foreign Minister: Do not push me to break my silence and ask which body rejected the proforma for the import of 20 million vaccines from Europe? Would you like me to continue and say more? (ISNA, August 12, 2021)
- Baqiyatallah University of Medical Sciences: If we want to tell the truth to the people, there are now 43,000 COVID-19 patients hospitalized in the country; out of these, we are going to have at least 4,000 deaths. (State Radio and Television news agency, August 12, 2021)
- According to state-controlled statistics, the number of COVID-19 patients hospitalized in Fars Province is 4,815, in Khorasan Razavi 3,200, in Isfahan 3,119, in Gilan 2,000, and in Ardabil 1,500. (Mehr news agency, August 12, 2021)
The People’s Mojahedin Organization of Iran (PMOI/MEK) announced on Thursday, August 12, 2021, that the Coronavirus death toll in 547 cities is more than 358,900. The number of victims in Tehran has reached 84,296, Isfahan 24,160, Khuzestan 22,596, Khorasan Razavi 22,335, Mazandaran 13,940, East Azerbaijan 13,653, Lorestan 13,220, West Azerbaijan 12,888, Fars 12,462, Gilan 11,745, Sistan and Baluchestan 10,555, Alborz 10,518, Kerman 9,013, Golestan 8,515, Kermanshah 6,568, Yazd 6,278, Hormozgan 6,215, Ardabil 4,360, Ilam 3,643, and South Khorasan 3,326.
On August 11, ISNA state-run news agency quoted Alireza Zali, the head of the NCCT in Tehran, as saying in an unprecedented and shocking admission: “When the first case of Coronavirus was detected in Qom, I called for Qom quarantine and said that the elections in Qom must be stopped, but some (officials) laughed at me and said we would control the pandemic very easily. The cost of Coronavirus drugs has gone up many times over the cost of vaccine imports, but they refused to authorize the purchase of the vaccine because they thought it was too expensive.
“When the World Health Organization (WHO) experts came to Iran, instead of consulting with them, we constantly asked them to admire the Iranian health system in the media. We concealed the (COVID-19) death toll from the WHO. We sent back the international aid and Médecins Sans Frontières from the airport while we had very little knowledge about the virus and did not seek international advice. Why doesn’t China, our best friend, give us enough vaccines? Our ambassadors abroad did not seek vaccines. I talked to the Japanese Ambassador, and he said that the Iranian Ambassador did not seek the vaccine at all. What kind of diplomacy is this? How come we are willing to buy oil equipment at three times the price under the sanctions but do not do the same in the case of vaccines? We have no other choice but to implement a two-week lockdown, which should start today. We only have five days of vaccine storage, and we cannot speed up. If there were enough vaccines, we would have doubled the vaccination centers. We are going to have more bitter news in the coming weeks, and things will get much worse.”
“Do not let us regret keeping silent and raise the question as to which body proposed the import of vaccines from China last September?” former Foreign Minister Javad Zarif told ISNA on August 11. “Which body keeps on attacking the most important foreign suppliers of vaccine every day? Which body rejected the proforma of imports of 20 million vaccines from Europe? Do you want me to go on?”
Secretariat of the National Council of Resistance of Iran (NCRI)
August 12, 2021
