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Source: https://besacenter.org/perspectives-papers/coronavirus-arab-world/
Can the Arab World Cope with the Coronavirus?
(BESA Center for Strategic Studies-Bar-Ilan University) Dr. Edy Cohen - Almost all of the coronavirus cases in Iraq, Syria and Lebanon originate with Iran. Photos and videos of night-time burials and dead people lying in the streets are going viral on Arabic social networks. Ten members of the Iraqi parliament have been infected. Dozens of people have returned infected to Cairo on flights from the U.S. and Europe, but the Egyptian government continues to insist that there are no coronavirus cases in the country. Saudi Arabia has so far managed to prevent a serious local outbreak as, for the first time in modern history, it has shut down the holy places in Mecca. Stories are circulating that many Iranian Revolutionary Guards are escaping to Lebanon with their families. The writer is a researcher at the BESA Center.