Iran’s coronavirus outbreak is increasing the political pressure on the regime while hampering the ability of the senior leaders to rule the country, according to a top U.S. general.
“Their inability to effectively respond to the coronavirus is, I think, inducing pressure on and inside the leadership,” Marine Corps Gen. Kenneth McKenzie, the commander of U.S. Central Command, told the Senate Armed Services Committee. “Of course, we watch that very closely.”
Iran has reported hundreds of deaths from the coronavirus, which has afflicted even the upper echelons of the regime’s leadership. An adviser to Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei died in early March, and dozens of members of Iran’s Parliament have also contracted the infectious disease.
“I think it is having an effect on how they make decisions,” McKenzie also testified Thursday. “I think it slows them down.”
The coronavirus emerged at a bad time for the regime, as McKenzie noted that the Iranian populace was already demonstrating “outrage” over the regime’s deception about the downing of a Ukrainian passenger jet over Tehran. The plane was shot down in early January, hours after Iran fired ballistic missiles at two bases housing U.S. troops in Iraq in retaliation for President Trump’s decision to kill Iranian Gen. Qassem Soleimani.
The regime looked to China to boost Iran’s tourism economy amid the fallout from the downing of that aircraft.
“Rest assured, Chinese friends can spend the New Year holiday in Iran,” the Iranian Embassy in Beijing announced on Jan. 10, referring to China’s Jan. 24 Lunar New Year Day. “Security is not a problem.”
That message was sent less than two weeks after Chinese officials reported that a mysterious virus had emerged in Wuhan, a major industrial city in China’s Hubei province. Within days, the outbreak had worsened into an undeniable crisis, prompting Chinese officials to extend the Lunar New Year holiday in an attempt to reduce travel and slow the contagion’s spread.
Chinese officials nevertheless also accused the United States of stoking “panic and overreaction” about the virus and pressured Chinese allies not to enact any travel restrictions. McKenzie couldn’t pinpoint the specific reason why Iran is suffering such a severe outbreak.
“There is a lot of travel between Iran and China, but I wouldn’t go beyond that, I’m just not enough of an expert to tell you,” McKenzie told lawmakers.
