Iran fights corona with foreign militias after superstitions fail

Eslam Mohamed

After Iran’s catastrophic failure to combat the Covid-19 corona virus, the regime has resorted to using its foreign Shiite armed militias operating abroad under the command of the Revolutionary Guard’s Quds Force to fight the pandemic.

The Revolutionary Guards (IRGC) militias announced in March that they have taken over the fight against the spread of the virus instead of the Ministry of Health. IRGC personnel proceeded to purify the streets, but they then disappeared mysteriously after a short period, leaving the Ministry of Health alone to lead the scene, reflecting the extent of chaos and conflict within the Iranian regime.

While it is not exactly clear as to the mission or location of the IRGC in the process of dealing with the pandemic, it was announced that Lebanese Hezbollah fighters have spread in Iran to participate in the fight against the virus. Abbas Mousavi, representative of Iraq’s al-Nujaba militia, which the US State Department added to the terrorism list in 2019, recently confirmed that his group joined the anti-corona mission in Iran and distributed 100 bags of food to the city’s poor, as well as hundreds of kilograms of honey to patients and medical staff as treatment.

Local sites have published photographs of al-Nujaba militia members setting up barricades in the streets of Qom, spraying disinfectants, and clearing away cars under the supervision of the IRGC.

This resembles the IRGC’s Basij militia, which had distributed dirt to hospitals claiming that it was sacred and possessed medicinal properties, in addition to putting distilled essential oil in the noses of patients.

In a related context, the director of Iranian religious seminaries, Ali Reza Arafi, sent letters to 50 religious leaders around the world, including the Vatican Pope, in which he offered to transmit Iran’s experiences in fighting the corona virus. This came after the alleged success of an experiment by an imam in Fars governorate in the country’s south. He also expressed the readiness of the IRGC militias to launch anti-pandemic centers in European countries and the United States despite the failure of the Iranian government to address the pandemic, which has killed thousands of citizens in Iran amid a shortage of medicines and medical staff.

The Iranian regime has used Iraqi militias for a number of different missions in recent years. In 2019, when floods struck the Arab region of Ahvaz, which seeks independence from Iran, Arab militias were brought in from Iraq to allegedly counter the floods, but accusations followed of them being involved in suppressing popular protests against the regime in Tehran.

Members of Iran’s Shura Council criticized the use of foreign militias in their country without obtaining the approval of the government of President Hassan Rouhani and the parliament, meaning that these actions violate the country’s constitution.