(Tehran) Satellite images have emerged of mass graves in the Iranian city
of Qom suggesting Iran’s coronavirus epidemic is a lot more more serious than
the mullahs have been admitting.
The pictures, published by the New York Times, show the excavation of a new section in a cemetery on the northern fringe of Iran’s holy city in late February, and two long trenches dug, of a total length of 100 yards, by the end of the month.
They confirm the worst fears about the extent of the
epidemic and the government’s subsequent cover-up. On 24 February, at the time
the trenches were being dug, a legislator from Qom, 75 miles (120 km) south of
Tehran, accused the health ministry of lying about the scale of the outbreak,
saying there had already been 50 deaths in the city, at a time when the
ministry was claiming only 12 people had died from the virus nationwide.
The deputy health minister, Iraj Harirchi, held a press
conference to “categorically deny” the allegations, but he was clearly sweating
and coughing as he did so. The next day, Harirchi confirmed that he had tested
positive for the Covid-19 virus.
Since then, members of Iranian parliament, the Majlis, a
former diplomat and a senior adviser to the Supreme Leader, Ali Khamenei, have
died. Another Khamenei adviser and one of the most powerful voices in Iranian
foreign policy, Ali Akbar Velayati, was reported on Thursday to have been
infected. The top ranks of Iran’s clerical leadership are particularly
vulnerable because of their advanced age.
