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Exposing the role that Islamic jihad theology and ideology play in the modern global conflicts

Iran scaling back jihad activity because of coronavirus, but US military fears it could become even more dangerous

Mar 19, 2020 12:00 pm By Christine Douglass-Williams

Iran has been listed in the top three countries worst hit by the virus. While Western countries grapple with how best to stop the spread of the virus, Iran faces additional dilemmas, such as the question of how to maintain the power of the mullahs over the people. Iran has also continued, despite the pandemic, to smear America and Israel. Its leaders have also called for a “health jihad” against the coronavirus. Some Iranians continue to gather in large groups for Islamic prayer despite the threat of contagion, perhaps hoping to die as a martyr. Others are actually licking shrines to clean them of coronavirus, so as to save other worshippers from getting it. Meanwhile, outside Iran, the Islamic State has issued an implied call to sicken infidels with COVID-19.

While Iran crumbles under the coronavirus, the Israeli Defense Force has indicated one positive aspect of all this: Iran is “curbing its activities as it grapples with a major outbreak of the coronavirus….that the military noted a decrease in the amount of activity in the region by Israel’s enemies.” But before anyone gets too hopeful, remember that a barbaric country such as Iran will hardly back down, given its zeal, its determination, and its reach through its influential proxies in the Middle East and worldwide. In fact, the “U.S. military is arguing that could make Iran more dangerous as it looks outward to distract from its coronavirus crisis.”

“IDF indicates Iran scaling back terror activity in light of coronavirus,” by Judah Ari Gross, Times of Israel, March 16, 2020:

The Israel Defense Forces indicated Monday its primary foe in the region, Iran, was curbing its activities as it grapples with a major outbreak of the coronavirus.

IDF Spokesperson Hidai Zilberman told reporters that the military noted a decrease in the amount of activity in the region by Israel’s enemies, without specifically naming Iran.
“There are countries who have gotten it way worse than us with this corona[virus] story, and as a result their activities are at a slower pace,” Zilberman said.

Iran is among the countries hardest hit by the coronavirus, with hundreds of people reported killed, including a senior cleric on Monday, and at least another 14,000 people infected with the disease.

The real numbers may be even higher, as some have questioned the government’s reporting.

Cabinet ministers, members of parliament, Revolutionary Guard members and Health Ministry officials have been infected, compounding fears about Iran’s response to the global pandemic, which has infected nearly 170,000 people worldwide and killed more than 6,500.

Iran is widely considered Israel’s main enemy in the region, controlling and funding terror groups across the Middle East, notably the powerful Hezbollah terrorist militia in Lebanon…..

“Coronavirus adds new element to rising US-Iran tensions,” by Rebecca Kheel, The Hill, March 17, 2020:

Tensions between the U.S. and Iran are escalating in a pattern similar to the one that brought the two sides to the brink of war earlier this year — but with one key difference.

This time around, both countries are focusing on the coronavirus pandemic, and that could affect how the situation plays out in the Middle East.

Iran is battling the region’s worst outbreak of the deadly virus. The U.S. military is arguing that could make Iran more dangerous as it looks outward to distract from its coronavirus crisis.

But others contend the situation could make Tehran less likely to lash out at its longtime adversary as its attention is consumed by fighting the virus.

“Certainly, the U.S. and Iranian preoccupation with coronavirus means that there simply may not be enough attention for this issue,” said Behnam Ben Taleblu, a senior fellow at the hawkish Foundation for the Defense of Democracies. “The preoccupation is going to necessarily be the public health crisis.”

As of Monday, Iran said it had 14,991 coronavirus cases and 853 deaths from the virus that’s also known as COVID-19. Several Iranian officials have contracted the disease and some have died as a result.

U.S. and international officials, however, have said Iran is likely underreporting the number of illnesses it has.

Still, the official leading Iran’s response to the virus acknowledged Sunday that the country’s health system could be overwhelmed.

“If the trend continues, there will not be enough capacity,” Ali Reza Zali was quoted as saying by the state-run IRNA news agency.

Amid the outbreak, the United States and an Iranian-backed militia are in the middle of a tit-for-tat in Iraq.

On Wednesday, a rocket attack that American officials blamed on the Iranian-backed Kataib Hezbollah killed two U.S. troops and a British service member at Iraq’s Camp Taji military base.

The U.S. military responded a day later with airstrikes on five Kataib Hezbollah sites that officials said the group was using as weapons storage facilities.

On Saturday, the U.S. military reported another rocket attack at Camp Taji that injured three U.S. troops and two Iraqi troops.

After Wednesday’s rocket attack, the political risk consultancy Eurasia Group put the odds of war “low, at 25 percent” because of “the fundamental reality that neither the US nor Iran is interested in war right now.”….

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Filed Under: Iran Tagged With: coronavirus, Hidai Zilberman, IDF, Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC)


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Comments

  1. Dan says

    Mar 19, 2020 at 12:17 pm

    Can’t help wondering if this actually IS affecting muslim countries more because one of the big problems with inbreeding is a crapola immune system.

    • Sam says

      Mar 19, 2020 at 12:45 pm

      The Jews could find a cure for this, then make the virus stronger and send it to Iran so they can be martyrs, but having the Jews make the cure which the Muslims will not take would be their best gift to the world and showing that the Jews are kind and merciful to everyone, but the Muslims being hateful to everyone else, would wipe themselves out and proving once again that Allah would allow the death of Muhammad, and will do it again for the Muslims.
      Maybe there isn’t an Allah, and the Mullahs are nothing but deceivers as was Muhammad.

      • gravenimage says

        Mar 19, 2020 at 10:00 pm

        Sam wrote:

        The Jews could find a cure for this, then make the virus stronger and send it to Iran
        ………………….

        The civilized Israelis–or any other Jews–would not do this.

  2. mortimer says

    Mar 19, 2020 at 12:17 pm

    Soon, Iran may be begging Western countries for help to fight the virus as their death toll goes exponential.

    There is a growing opportunity for counter-revolution in Iran. God help them.

  3. Phil Copson says

    Mar 19, 2020 at 12:29 pm

    “We have no China virus in Iran !” announces President Hassan Wuhan-i……

  4. mortimer says

    Mar 19, 2020 at 12:42 pm

    With 1,000 new Iranian cases every day currently, Iran will have at least half a million new cases by the end of 2020.

  5. Arnold Jackson says

    Mar 19, 2020 at 6:56 pm

    I wouldn’t be surprised to see them trying to send sick people into other countries to wage bio-jihad.

    • Cece says

      Mar 19, 2020 at 10:03 pm

      Or people just flee in panic and spread it that way. In either case it is not good.

    • Joseph ELLUL says

      Mar 20, 2020 at 7:09 am

      Already have. Saudi Arabia accused Iran of not stamping the passports of infected passengers who travelled out of Iran. Hundreds were sent out to Canada, France, England, Far East, Australia and even China.

      • Carol the 1st says

        Mar 23, 2020 at 12:01 am

        Not following. Are you saying those passports would be stamped with something indicating they were infected? And then they would still be let on a plane?

  6. gravenimage says

    Mar 19, 2020 at 9:58 pm

    Iran scaling back jihad activity because of coronavirus, but US military fears it could become even more dangerous
    ……………….

    Wouldn’t surprise me. The Mullahs have to distract from the Coronavirus outbreak there.

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