Iranian Adviser Urges Muslims to Help Palestine in Coronavirus Fight
TEHRAN (Tasnim) – An adviser to the Iranian parliament speaker called on the world Muslims to assist the Palestinian nation in the battle with the coronavirus.
In a Wednesday meeting with Palestine’s Ambassador to Tehran Salah Al-Zawawi, Iranian parliament speaker’s adviser for international affairs Hossein Amir Abdollahian said although the world is plagued by the coronavirus outbreak, the Islamic Ummah (community) and the free nations must help the people of Palestine in the fight against COVID-19.
Expressing regret at the dire situation in Palestine in the wake of outbreak of the novel coronavirus, Amir Abdollahian said the Zionist regime’s criminal move to keep the humanitarian sanctions against Gaza and the West Bank in place will fuel anger of Palestinians and the resistance groups.
Zawawi, for his part, thanked the Islamic Republic for its effective supports for Palestine and Muslim unity over the past four decades.
The envoy also pointed to the critical situation in Palestine caused by the blockade and the shortage of medical and health facilities, saying there is information that the coronavirus outbreak and the subsequent harms have been part of a plot hatched by the US and the Zionist regime in order to create the so-called “great Israel”, but the ploy has backfired.
For weeks, Palestinian officials have issued warnings that workers travelling back and forth between occupied territories, Israeli settlements and their homes could fuel a larger outbreak.
As of April 5, the Palestinian Authority (PA) had recorded 252 cases of coronavirus and one death.
The PA has projected that its budget deficit could increase from $0.8 billion to between $1.8 billion and $2.4 billion as a result of losses in government revenues, depending on the severity of the coronavirus outbreak.