TEHRAN: Iranian President Hassan Rouhani said mosques would reopen across large parts of the country Monday, after they were closed in early March amid the Middle East’s deadliest novel coronavirus outbreak.
Rouhani said 132 counties, around one third of the country’s administrative divisions, would “reopen their mosques as of tomorrow.”
“Social distancing is more important than collective prayer,” he added, arguing that Islam considers safety obligatory, while praying in mosques is only “recommended.”
The targeted counties are “low-risk,” Rouhani said in a televised meeting of the country’s virus taskforce.
He said the committee was also mulling reopening schools by May 16 to allow for a month of classes before the summer break.
The new coronavirus has killed more than 6,150 and infected over 96,440 in Iran since it announced its first cases in mid-February.
Rouhani claimed hospital visits over potential infections were “much lower” compared to recent weeks.
Iran on Saturday reported its lowest daily toll of new infections since March 10.
Experts and officials both in Iran and abroad have cast doubts over the country’s COVID-19 figures, saying the real number of cases could be much higher than reported.
The Islamic republic has tried to contain the spread of the virus by shutting universities, cinemas, stadiums and other public spaces since March.
But it has allowed a phased reopening of its economy since April 11, arguing that the sanctions-hit country cannot afford to remain shut down.
Only “high-risk” businesses like gyms and barbershops remain closed.
“We will continue the reopenings calmly and gradually,” Rouhani said.
Yet he warned that Iran should prepare for “bad scenarios” too, saying “this situation may continue into the summer.”
Iran to reopen many mosques as lockdown eases: Rouhani
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Iran to reopen many mosques as lockdown eases: Rouhani
- Maintaining “social distancing is more important than collective prayer,” Rouhani said
Assad forces injured 35 in 2016 chlorine attack: watchdog
- “There are reasonable grounds to believe that one Mi8/17 helicopter of the Syrian Arab Air Force dropped at least one yellow pressurised cylinder,” OPCW said
- The team interviewed dozens of witnesses, analyzed samples and reviewed satellite images
THE HAGUE: Former Syrian president Bashar Assad’s forces deployed chlorine gas in a 2016 attack that injured at least 35 people, the world’s chemical weapons watchdog concluded Thursday.
The October 2016 attack near a field hospital outside the town of Kafr Zeita, in western Syria, was already well-documented but the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) for the first time accused Assad’s forces.
“There are reasonable grounds to believe that one Mi8/17 helicopter of the Syrian Arab Air Force dropped at least one yellow pressurised cylinder,” the OPCW said in a report.
“Upon impact, the cylinder ruptured and released chlorine gas, which dispersed through the Wadi Al-Aanz valley, injuring 35 named individuals and affecting dozens more,” OPCW investigators concluded.
The team interviewed dozens of witnesses, analyzed samples and reviewed satellite images.
Assad was repeatedly accused of using chemical weapons during Syria’s 13-year civil war, and there has been widespread concern about the fate of Syria’s stocks since his 2024 ouster.
In a landmark speech last year, the foreign minister of the new Syrian government pledged to dismantle any remnants of Assad’s chemical weapons program.
The OPCW welcomed the “full and unfettered access” the new Syrian authorities granted their investigators.
It was the “first instance of cooperation by the Syrian Arab Republic with an... investigation,” the OPCW said.
The OPCW wants to establish a permanent presence in Syria to draw up an inventory of chemical weapons sites and start the destruction of the stockpiles.
