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“Luminous path”
American and British troops, sometimes with the use of improvised explosive devices (IEDs).
In late January, Iran said a US threat to kill the successor to Soleimani was a sign of “America’s targeted and governmental terrorism”.
On January 23, the US special representative for Iran, Brian Hook, was quoted by Asharq al-Awsat newspaper as saying Soleimani’s successor as commander of the IRGC Quds Force for Iranian military operations abroad, Esmail Qaani, would suffer the same fate as his predecessor if he followed a similar path by killing Americans.
He added in a Davos, Switzerland interview with the publication that Trump had long made it clear “that any attack on Americans or American interests would be met with a decisive response”.
After his appointment, Qaani, as reported by Reuters, said that he would “continue in this luminous path” taken by Soleimani and that the goal was to drive US forces out of the Middle East, Iran’s long-stated policy.
Following the death of the general, an Iranian MP said the people of the commander’s home province Kerman were willing to pay a $3mn bounty to anyone who killed Trump.
2.2 Iran’s official coronavirus death toll passes 10,000
Call it what you will, a “second wave” or a “first wave spike”, but Iran still has an immense dilemma in how to battle its coronavirus (COVID-19) outbreak, the death toll from which surpassed 10,000 according to official figures released on June 25.
The Islamic Republic is struggling to cope with the twin effects of the coronavirus spread and strangling sanctions levied by the US, which have hampered efforts to control people’s daily activities given the pressure they have placed on the country and its people to stay economically active. The unofficial death toll from the virus in Iran is, meanwhile, widely thought to be considerably higher than the recorded figure of 10,130 (as of June 25) with some expatriate community estimates placing the likely real figure above 40,000 as early as May.
This week the official COVID-19 death rate has regularly passed 100 per day, with the country recording 134 deaths in the past 24 hours alone.
The total number of official cases in the country of 84mn has reached 215,096, of whom 175,103 have recovered.
Iran has demanded that everyone wear face masks outside the home to lessen the spread of the virus as the struggle to continue with regular daily life continues. However, many people are ignoring the request. Officials are thus considering making mask-wearing mandatory.
The country opened up its economy just over a month ago with businesses having refused to stay in lockdown as state support was lacking, with no furlough schemes or cash grants available due to empty state coffers.
6 IRAN Country Report July 2020 www.intellinews.com
