Islamic Republic alleges French medical charity MSF staff would serve as ‘spies’ if deployed on the ground in Iran.
Iran ruled out “foreign” help on the ground to deal with the coronavirus pandemic after an offer from a France-based medical charity, as the country’s death toll from the contagion neared 2,000.
“Due to Iran’s national mobilisation against the virus and the full use of the medical capacity of the armed forces, it is not necessary for now for hospital beds to be set up by foreign forces, and their presence is ruled out,” Alireza Vahabzadeh, adviser to Iran’s health minister, said on Tuesday.
Doctors Without Borders (MSF) said Sunday it planned to send a nine-member team and equipment to set up a 50-bed hospital, stirring opposition from ultra-conservative circles in the Islamic Republic who alleged MSF staff would serve as “spies”.
Health ministry spokesman Kianoush Jahanpour earlier said a record 1,762 new cases were confirmed in Iran over the past 24 hours with 24,811 people infected.
He announced 122 new deaths from the virus, raising the official toll to 1,934 in one of the world’s worst-hit countries.
MSF said on Tuesday it did not understand a decision by Iranian authorities to cancel a mission it had prearranged to set up a facility to fight coronavirus in Isfahan.
“We are surprised to learn that the deployment of our treatment unity is cancelled,” Michel-Olivier Lacharite, who is in charge of Medecins Sans Frontieres crisis response team, said in a statement.
He said the group had been given prior approval and were ready to set up the 50-bed unit at the end of the week. He said they were still ready to deploy on Iran or elsewhere on the region.
(This story has not been edited by Kashmir Today staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)