'Very secretive': Hidden coronavirus 'disaster' brewing in Syria

Syrian dictator Bashar Assad is allowing a “disastrous” coronavirus outbreak to fester due to his dependence on stricken Iran to win the long-running civil war, according to local reports and international observers. “It's very secretive,” MedGlobal founder Zaher Sahloul told the Washington Examiner. “If the epidemic spread in Syria, it would be disastrous, especially in the northwest.”

Sahloul, a U.S.-based doctor whose organization provides aid to civilians affected by the conflict, said that a prominent Syrian doctor revealed a case had been confirmed in a major Damascus hospital and then recanted after being detained by the regime. The MedGlobal founder thinks there could be 2,400 coronavirus cases that are currently being hidden by the regime. “Their thinking within the regime is that, if they volunteer this information, then that puts them under more pressure from their supporters,” he said. “There is all this pattern in Syria of covering up these issues or delaying the information until it gets out of control.”

Assad’s regime maintains that the country has no coronavirus cases, but officials in Pakistan say that some of the confirmed cases in their country originated in Syria. Some analysts believe that Iranian forces have carried the virus to Syria, as Tehran is providing the regime with ground troops even as American officials believe that the Iranian military is hampered by one of the worst coronavirus outbreaks in the world. “Iran sits in the middle of the theater, so their ability to pass that infection to other states is very worrisome,” Marine Corps Gen. Frank McKenzie, the commander of U.S. Central Command, told the Senate Armed Services Committee this week. “I would say it’s going to have some effect on the military instrument.”

That military traffic is augmented by religious tourism, as Syria hosts holy sites in cities throughout regime-controlled territory. And the danger is exacerbated by Assad’s decision, with Russian military support, to attack hospitals in his campaign to regain control of the country. “You have the whole ingredient of a huge disaster and because, again, of the disintegration of the public healthcare system in Syria,” Zahloul said. “Why would you expect … a government that is bombing hospitals and killing its own doctors to actually be a credible source of protection from this epidemic?”

The novel coronavirus, which originated in China late last year before developing into a global pandemic, could have a particularly devastating effect on the camps that hold millions of civilians who have fled the fighting. There are 3.5 million civilians in Idlib, the last rebel-held territory in the country. “Given the really horrible conditions, I think it would be a miracle if these displaced Syrians do not contract coronavirus,” Aykan Erdemir, a former Turkish parliamentarian and a senior analyst at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies, told the Washington Examiner. “All three, meaning the Syrian regime and Russian and Iranian forces, have proven their complete indifference to such humanitarian worries.”

Zahloul held out the hope that Idlib might enjoy some insulation from the virus as people from elsewhere in the country avoid traveling into a war zone. “That will provide relative protection to that province,” he said. “But for the rest of Syria, because of the flow of travelers from Iran … that would also make it more likely for the virus to spread.”

https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/policy/defense-national-security/very-secretive-hidden-coronavirus-disaster-brewing-in-syria