Podcast: Michael Doran on Why the Coronavirus Is Hitting Iran so Hard

By Tikvah Podcast at Mosaic, Michael Doran

The foreign-policy expert joins us to talk about how things there have got so bad, what the regime is thinking, and what it means for tensions with America.

This Week’s Guest: Michael Doran

In the past two months, the coronavirus has spread rapidly around the globe. As disruptive and damaging as this pandemic has been in the United States, Israel, and Europe, it has been far more devastating in Iran. Official statistics paint a dreadful picture of the situation there, but the truth seems to be worse even than that. Iranian citizens are taking to social media in protest and to raise the alarm, and so many are dying that mass graves are being dug.

The news prompts any number of questions. Why has Iran been hit so hard? Is there any truth to the Iranian foreign minister’s complaint that American sanctions are to blame? What implications will the coronavirus crisis have for the tensions between Iran and the U.S.?

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