144 deaths on Thursday. “Iran’s army sets up hospital in capital as virus toll climbs,” Amir Vahdat and Josephy Krauss, AP, March 27, 2020.
“Amnesty International Urges Iran To Grant Furlough To Prisoners Of Conscience,” Radio Farda, March 27, 2020.
“Iran Defense Minister Says Cruise Missile Warheads To Become More Powerful Soon,” Radio Farda, March 27, 2020.
I am pasting this short story in full because it has a blatant falsehood regarding Iran’s practice of hostage taking. “Tehran said on Thursday that a former FBI agent who disappeared in Iran in March 2007 had left the country years ago despite his family saying he had died in Iranian custody. “Based on credible evidence, Levinson has left Iran years ago for an unspecified destination,” Foreign Ministry spokesman Abbas Mousavi said, according to state television. “In the past years Iran has tried to find out his state but could not find any signs of him being alive.”” See “Tehran says former FBI agent Levinson left Iran years ago,” Parisa Hafezi, Reuters, March 26, 2020. The Regime has never before today, since he was taken in 2007, claimed that Levinson left the country, and offers no proof now of his leaving.
The IRGC and its Quds Force have delivered lethal aid to Iranian-backed militias in Iraq, Kataib Hezbollah and Asa’ib Ahl al-Haq, and have smuggled weapons to Iranian-backed Houthi rebels in Yemen. It is no surprise that Iran’s continued support (and not redirecting this terrorism funding toward better goals such as coronavirus relief for Iranians) for these groups would result in more U.S. sanctions. “U.S. imposes fresh Iran-related sanctions despite coronavirus,” Daphne Psaledakis, Arshad Mohammed, Reuters, March 26, 2020. See also, “Trump Admin Sanctions Vast Iranian Terror Network in Iraq,” Adam Kredo, Washington Free Beacon, March 26, 2020.
“Rouhani Seeks $1 Billion From Iran’s Wealth Fund for Virus Fight,” Golnar Motevalli, Bloomberg, March 26, 2020. Rouhani wrote to Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei yesterday requesting permission to withdraw the money from the National Development Fund, IRNA reported, quoting Rouhani’s comments at a coronavirus task force meeting in Tehran. The National Development Fund, mainly from oil income, hasn’t published any official figures in some time. In 2016, the Mehr News Agency reported the fund stood at $80 billion.