Iranian government official Mohammad Mir-Mohammadi dies of COVID-19

Tuesday, March 3, 2020 

Seyed Mohammad Mir-Mohammadi, a council member of Iranian Expediency Discernment Council, died of COVID-19, the government announced yesterday. Mir-Mohammadi was 71 years old. According to the report by Tasnim News Agency, he died at the Masih-e-Daneshavari hospital in the capital city Tehran.

File photo of Mohammad Mir-Mohammadi
Image: Hossein Mersadi.

Mir-Mohammadi served as one of the advisors of the Supreme Leader of the Islamic Republic of Iran. He had served Iran's Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei in that capacity since 2017. Mir-Mohammadi had previously represented Iran's Qom Province in the Islamic Consultative Assembly.

A few days back, Mir-Mohammadi's mother died after contracting COVID-19, Tehran Times reported. She was sister of Grand Ayatollah Mousa Shubairi Zanjani. Multiple Iranian government officials including deputy health minister Iraj Harirchi and vice president of women and family affairs Masoumeh Ebtekar had also contracted COVID-19.

Offering his condolence, speaker of the parliament Ali Larijani wrote on Instagram: "The years of his life, thanks to this popular personality, committed to political virtue, have always served the Islamic system, and from his youth until his final years, his sincere desire to do so did not diminish. [...] he offered honest services such as representing the honorable people of Qom, chairing the President's office and joining the Expediency Council." ^{((fa))Persian language: ‍ سالهای حیات با بركت این شخصیت مردمی، متعهد و ملتزم به تقوای سیاسی، یكسره در خدمت به نظام اسلامی گذشت و از دوران جوانی تا آخرین سالها، مجاهدت مخلصانه‌اش در این راه كاستی نگرفت.[...] خدمات صادقانه ای نظیر نمایندگی مردم شریف قم، ریاست دفتر رییس جمهور و عضویت در مجمع تشخیص مصلحت نظام را ارائه كرد.}

Ali Reza Raisi, speaking for the country's Health Ministry, reported yesterday, "The definite latest numbers we have are 523 new infections and 12 new deaths so the total number of those infected until now is 1501 and the number of deaths is 66". According to Johns Hopkins Center for Systems Science and Engineering late today, 291 patients have recovered from the virus in Iran.

Sources

• "Coronavirus COVID-19 Global Cases by Johns Hopkins CSSE" — John Hopkins CSSE, March 3, 2020 (date of access)
• Ali Larijani. "Ali Larijani on Instagram" — Instagram, March 2, 2020
• "Expediency Council member Mohammad Mirmohammadi dies" — Tehran Times, March 2, 2020
• "Iranian top official dies of coronavirus" — The Jerusalem Post, March 2, 2020
• Nasser Karimi and Jon Gambrell. "Virus ravaging Iran kills confidant of its supreme leader" — Associated Press, March 2, 2020
• Bill Bostock. "A member of the inner circle of Iran's Supreme Leader died of the coronavirus, as the country records more deaths than anywhere outside China" — Business Insider, March 2, 2020