Mark Dubowitz’s Delight over Coronavirus in Iran ‘Shameful’: Araqchi

An Iranian deputy foreign minister has lashed out at Mark Dubowitz, the CEO of the hawkish American think-tank FDD, for cheering over the harms that the outbreak of a novel coronavirus has caused in Iran.

In a post on his Twitter account, Iranian Deputy Foreign Minister Seyyed Abbas Araghchi denounced Dubowitz’ shameful expression of delight over the damages that COVID-19 has caused to Iran’s economy.

“It’s shameful and downright inhuman to cheer for a deadly Virus to spread – and enjoy seeing people suffer for it, but at least @mdubowitz understands that the American economic sanctions were not — and will not — as effective as a Covid-19 Virus,” Araghchi said.

His comment came after Dubowitz, the CEO of the so-called Foundation for Defence of Democracies (FDD), expressed delight over the economic harms done by the coronavirus in Iran.

“Coronavirus has done what American economic sanctions could not: shut down non-oil exports,” Dubowitz said in post on his Twitter account on Tuesday.

He has also attached a link to his post citing an op-ed article published in Bloomberg, entitled ‘Coronavirus Will Hammer Iran’s Economy’.

According to Iran’s Health Ministry, the number of people who have died from the coronavirus in the country has risen to 19 and the total number of confirmed cases to 139.

Iranian President Hassan Rouhani says spreading fear about coronavirus pandemic is a plot by enemies who are attempting to halt the Islamic Republic’s activities.

IFP Editorial Staff

The IFP Editorial Staff is composed of dozens of skilled journalists, news-writers, and analysts whose works are edited and published by experienced editors specialized in Iran News. The editor of each IFP Service is responsible for the report published by the Iran Front Page (IFP) news website, and can be contacted through the ways mentioned in the "IFP Editorial Staff" section.