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Iranians are scared and angry. Their government has been lying to them and their media was instructed not to report on the coronavirus outbreak as it rapidly spread from the religious city of Qom to other cities. On Saturday, Tehran was awash with rumors and riots occurred in the city of Talesh on the Caspian sea due to a quarantine.

The situation inside the hospital is very scary and terrifying, one man tweeted. Even the hospital medical staff, some of whom are infected with the coronavirus, are terrified." In Isfahan medical students protested at the local University of Medical Sciences due to lack of protective gear. Iranians are well educated and they know the risks as their government tried over seventy hours to stop the spread of information about the crises.

By Saturday evening at least six people were dead but official figures put the number of infections only in the twenties. In fact rumors were spreading that the numbers could be in the hundreds or a thousand cases. In Iraq the authorities moved to shut the border and stop Iranian pilgrims from coming from Qom. In addition Iran sought to clamp down on travel. A Lebanese woman returning from Qom tested positive in Lebanon. Lebanons Health Minister, who is linked to the pro-Iranian Hezbollah, said everything was in order.

Yet Iranians were urged by their government to congregate in confined spaces on Friday to vote. The regime wanted the turnout to grow beyond the 11 million who were estimated to have voted. The government, seeking to censor information on the spread of the virus, likely contributed to misinformation by pushing the polls to stay open later with a national health emergency looming. Yet Fars News, Tasnim and other news outlets did not warn of the crises. The only information came later on Saturday when reports said that there was price gouging for protective medical masks. Anadolu, a Turkish news agency, photographed dozens of people in Iran already wearing the masks. The government sought to put price controls on masks so people could afford them.

In the afternoon on Saturday officials moved to close all schools on Sunday and Monday. A mayor, named Mortaza Rahmanzeda of a district in Tehran was taken to hospital. Rumors claimed he was badly ill from the virus. Other officials appeared to be concerned they might be sick. Mohsen Rafsanjani, head of the city council of Tehran, said he was visiting a hospital. By the evening Irans media announced universities would close. But media still wasnt allowed to report the reason. Educational facilities, according to Fars News, will be closed in Tehran, Alborz, Qazvin, Markzai, Qom, Hamedan, Isfahan, Gilan and Mazandaran provinces. There are thirty provinces in Iran, but there are the most central. It appears the virus may not have spread to outlying areas, such as the Kurdistan region. But the Kurdistan region of Iraq is taking no chances, quarantining people in Soran and considering to close the border. In Pakistan also some voices are calling for border closures. In Iran some expressed anger at Mahan Air and other airlines for continuing to fly pilgrims.

The Minister of Science spoke out Saturday about the coronavirus precautions. He urged people at University to visit health center as soon as they feel symptoms of a cold, flue or the like. Take the necessary measures to treat them at the centers. In Alborz a university head encouraged most people not to wear a mask. He said that news about the virus must come only from the Ministry of Health and that people should avoid rumors. There are no cases in the province, he claimed, according to ISNA in Iran.

The lack of response by authorities and rumors have caused a tense situation in Iran. It also appears to be contributing to the spread of the virus to other countries. Iraqs Muqtada al-Sadr flew home to Iraq as the virus spread in Qom. Oddly he did not have to be quarantined. Iran is already on edge because of protests last year where the authorities killed 1,500 demonstrators. But the authorities continue to provide little information on the extent of the outbreak. A head of a unit at Qom University said he had received no statistics. Women at a university in Tehran protested the lack of information. In Talesh people continued to protest mysterious closures and quarantines. Tear gas was used outside at least one hospital. In Rasht fires were lit and the authorities cracked down on protests. They resort to oppression instead of a solution to the coronavirus crises, wrote locals.

News programs in the evening in Iran gave advise on wearing masks and cleaning ones hands. But they didnt explain how to best prevent the spread of the virus. They gave only comfort one woman tweeted, complaining of the lack of information.

Iran covered up the downing of a Ukrainian airliner in January and the killing of protests in November. The regime sees no incentive to be honest with its people or the world, since it can act with impunity regardless of the international community and international standards, and still be greeted with a welcome in Europe and most countries. In this respect the response to the virus outbreak is the usual opaque and unclear answers from Tehran as people live in fear and dont know what to do as schools are closed. Neighboring countries are on edge as well.

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Irans government and media lied about coronavirus outbreak, riots erupt - The Jerusalem Post

Iran's Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif takes part in the panel discussion 'A conversation with Iran' during the 56th Munich Security Conference in Munich on February 15, 2020.

Thomas Kienzle | AFP via Getty Images

MUNICH Iranian foreign minister Mohammad Javad Zarif called the deadly U.S. strike on Iran's top military leader an "act of terror" and blamed President Donald Trump's advisors.

"This moment is a very dangerous moment because the United States has been misled. I believe President Trump, unfortunately, does not have good advisers," Zarif told an audience Saturday during a discussion at the Munich Security Conference.

"Unfortunately somebody else is trying to mimic John Bolton and promised the president that killing Soleimani would bring people to dance in the streets in Tehran and Baghdad. And that the continuation of maximum pressure would bring us to our knees before his reelection campaign," he said, adding that none of it came to pass.

Iranian mourners gather during the final stage of funeral processions for slain top general Qasem Soleimani, in his hometown Kerman on January 7, 2020.

Atta Kenare | AFP | Getty Images

"That was an act of terror," he said of the Jan. 2 strike that killed Gen. Qasem Soleimani, a key military figure of Iranian and Middle East politics. "The United States conducts operations and wants to be immune from the consequences, that doesn't happen," he added.

On the heels of the strike, Iran launched at least a dozen missiles from its territory on Jan. 7 at two military bases in Iraq that house U.S. troops and coalition forces.

A day later from the White House, Trump said that Iran appeared "to be standing down" and warned Tehran to abandon its nuclear ambitions.

"As long as I am president of the United States, Iran will never be allowed to have a nuclear weapon," Trump said speaking from the grand foyer of the White House.

But he suggested that the U.S. is open to negotiations with Tehran. "We must all work together toward making a deal with Iran that makes the world a safer and more peaceful place," he said on Jan. 8.

He then urged other world powers to break away from the Obama-era nuclear agreement with Iran and work out a new deal.

The Trump administration withdrew from the 2015 nuclear deal with world powers and began a policy of "maximum pressure" to reign in Tehran's activities in the Middle East.

And while U.S. sanctions have crippled Iran's economy, slashing its oil exports, Tehran has said it will not negotiate with Washington while the penalties are in place.

"John Kerry and I spent more time together than we did with our wives for two years," Zarif said of the Obama-era agreement at the Munich Security Forum.

"It was a multilateral agreement and President Trump decided that he simply did not like Obama so he could leave. So there's no point in talking over something that you talked about. I mean, you don't buy a horse twice," he added.

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Iran's foreign minister blames Trump's advisors for 'very dangerous moment' in relations with the US - CNBC

Key point:Pahlavis vision is one of nonviolent resistance to Irans clerical regime.

Over the past few weeks, the Trump administration has turned up the heat on Tehran. Way up. As part of a maximum pressure campaign aimed at curbing the malign international activities of Irans ruling regime, the White House has dramatically intensified sanctions, blacklisted the countrys clerical army, and put foreign buyers of Iranian crude on notice that they need to pull out of the Iranian market or face potentially catastrophic consequences.

But to what end? President Donald Trump has said repeatedly that he would be willing to negotiate a new framework agreement with Irans ayatollahs to replace the 2015 Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action and do so without preconditions. That may indeed happen, if Irans ayatollahs agree to come back to the diplomatic table. But the massive economic and political pressure now being placed on Iran by the United States could lead to another outcome as well: a collapse of the current Iranian regime. That raises a key question for policymakers: if the United States does indeed succeed in causing a fundamental transformation in Iran, then what should come next?

In this conversation, one personality looms exceedingly large. That individual is Reza Pahlavi, the former crown prince of Iran, who is now the most prominent leader of the secular democratic opposition to the Islamic Republic. Pahlavi was just a couple of years away from inheriting the throne in Tehran when his family was ousted from power by the Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeinis Islamic Revolution in 1979. In the half-century since, the crown prince has used his perch in exile (first in Morocco and more recently in the Washington, DC suburbs) to publicly oppose Irans clerical elite and articulate a different path forward for his homeland.

Today, Pahlavi remains relevant and highly influential in many Iranian expatriate circles, as well as on the Iranian street, which is where pro-Pahlavi slogans have figured prominently in the protests that have taken place throughout the country since late 2017. But he is less relevant among U.S. policymakers and experts, whothough they undoubtedly know his namegenerally have little familiarity with his vision.

Pahlavi and his supporters are seeking to change that. Of late, as Americas contentious relationship with Iran has once again begun to make headlines, they have redoubled their efforts to engage in earnest with the Washington Beltway. In meetings with various think tanks and assorted policy groups, the crown prince has laid out in detail his ideas about the future of Iran and its place in the world.

Pahlavi believes that the United States faces a binary choice in its Iran policy. The United States can either pursue the status quothe best variant of which envisions achieving some measure of behavioral change from Irans current leadershipor it can throw its weight unequivocally behind the need for a new regime in Tehran. The path that Washington chooses will have a profound impact on a range of issues, from the nuclear file to bilateral relations to Irans position in (and disposition toward) the Middle East, Pahlavi argues.

Here, the desires and aspirations of Irans population matter a great deal. According to Pahlavi, those have changed significantly in the decade since the Green Revolution of 2009. Back then, there remained some semblance of loyal opposition which sought reform of the Islamic Republic rather than its total dismantlement. (Both of the titular leaders of the Green protests, Mehdi Kharroubi and Mir-Hossein Mousavi, belonged to this camp, despite their revolutionary credentials.) Today, by contrast, Iranians are overwhelmingly united in their desire for a fundamental change in government, as ongoing protests against the Iranian regime make abundantly clear.

But, Pahlavi laments, America is basically alone in its fight against the Iranian regime. Europe is both too craven and too mercantile to take a principled stand against the ayatollahs. Russia, meanwhile, serves as the biggest nemesis of real meaningful change in Iran, with the Kremlin maintaining a deep and abiding stake in the perpetuation of the Islamic Republic, which has become a key strategic partner. However, he maintains, the United States does have an ally in the Iranian people, who are willing to withstand sanctions and economic hardship as long as they perceive that the United States has a long-term strategy to bring fundamental change to the country.

The biggest challenge facing the Iranian opposition, Pahlavi believes, is the fear of the unknown generated by discussions of regime alternatives. To ameliorate this, the Iranian opposition needs to create a roadmap for political transition, as well as some sort of apolitical organization to anticipate future problems and offer up solutions. There appears to be preliminary movement in this direction on the part of Pahlavi and his supporters in the form of a new, apolitical initiative known as the Phoenix Project, which is designed to bring the various strains of the opposition closer to a common vision for a postclerical Iran.

Pahlavi likewise believes that core elements of the regimeincluding elements of the standing army and the religious military, known as the IRGCare not consolidated around the status quo, and can be nudged in the direction of regime change provided that 1) a clear exit strategy is articulated, so they know what theyre getting into, and 2) that at least some of their equities (economic and political) are protected under the new order. To do so, Pahlavi argues, the United States should focus on targeted measures such as asset freezes and travel bans as a way of targeting regime leadership and elites. This would, in his estimation, send a strong signal to the Iranian people that the United States is paying attention and knows who the bad guys are, and also help to generate cleavages within key regime institutions (such as the IRGC).

Then there is the nuclear file. Although he doesnt rule out that a future Iranian government might want to be a nuclear power, Pahlavi argues that such investments for a successor governmentat least in the near termwould be foolish and wasteful, detracting from the necessary institution building and economic stabilization that the country desperately needs. And over the longer term, he maintains, the question of regime character should be the governing factor in how the international community deals with the issue of Irans nuclear ambitions. After all, as Pahlavi puts it, Its not the gun. Its the finger on the trigger.

Fundamentally, Pahlavis vision is one of nonviolent resistance to Irans clerical regime. He forcefully rejects the idea that ordinary Iranians should take up arms against the ayatollahs, and instead believes that it is possible to create a controlled implosion through nonviolent means which would bring new leadership to power. In this process, the crown prince sees himself as something resembling an honest lawyera gray eminence that could throw his substantial gravitas behind the nascent institutions of a posttheocratic Iran. However, one gets the sense that, if asked to rule, Pahlavi would probably not be averse to the idea.

All of that, however, remains purely conceptual. For the moment, Pahlavis message is that the United States needs to fundamentally change how it thinks about Iran. As he sees it, there is no substitute for seriousness on the part of Americas leaders. And if such seriousness does in fact manifest itself, then the crown prince is confident that the United States will find no shortage of allies on the Iranian street.

Ilan Berman is senior vice president of the American Foreign Policy Council in Washington, DC. This is the first installment in a series of feature articles exploring the beliefs, ideas and values of different factions within the Iranian opposition. This first appeared last year.

Image: Reuters.

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This Could Be Iran's Next Ruler (Or King?) - The National Interest Online

Many see Iran's conservatives winning Friday's election, but that's more to do with reformists losing favor than hard-liners gaining popularity, a research associate said this week.

"The reformists aren't particularly popular right now, but the conservatives definitely aren't very popular," said Tan Feng Qin of the Middle East Institute at the National University of Singapore.

Voter turnout is expected to be low as young people say they're refusing to go to the polls.Iran's 2016 parliamentary election saw a coalition of reformists and moderate conservatives taking control, but current lawmakers have disappointed the Iranian populace.

"Their performance has been lackluster, the economy hasn't improved and Iranians are a bit frustrated about the lack of progress on economic and political issues," he told CNBC's "Capital Connection" on Friday.

It's not that the tide has turned toward the conservatives, however, said Tan, adding that they tend to be suspicious about reaching a negotiated nuclear agreement with the U.S., which is "one of the main issues that's stopping the Iranian economy from recovering."

The international community, led by the U.S., has sanctioned Iran for years in a bid to limit its nuclear power program.

"If (the conservatives) do well this time in this election, it's not so much that they've suddenly gained popularity but the reformists and the pragmatists have lost clout because of their performance," he said.

While Tan stopped short of predicting a win for the hard-liners, Emily Hawthorne, Stratfor's Middle East and North Africa analyst, said there are a few factors why a "more conservative parliament" can be expected not least of which is the disqualification of reformist candidates.

An unelected religious and legal group the Guardian Council vetted 15,000 candidates and barred more than 7,000 from running for office.

"There were a high number of disqualifications of reformist candidates ... for the election, but that's just one factor among many as to why we should expect a more conservative parliament," she said.

"The recent assassination of Qasem Soleimani, the perceived failure of the more moderate approach of current President Hassan Rouhani and his reformist backers all of this is factoring into an opening for more conservative policy, more hard-line policy."

Regardless of the outcome of the election, however, Hawthorne said Iran's leaders have a tough road ahead.

"No matter who, politically, is at the helm of the government or is crafting economic policy, there are real limits to the solutions they can come up with in the face of unprecedented U.S. sanctions."

CNBC's Natasha Turak contributed to this report.

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Conservatives stand to win Iran's election as reformists fall out of favor, analysts say - CNBC

Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei on Wednesday said the United States will sink like the Titanic, blaming it on wealthy Zionist individuals and corporate owners who he said controlled the US economy.

In a long series of tweets, Khameneisaid the strength of the US economy was a facade and appeared to quote progressive Democrats saying that US President Donald Trump was overseeing the transfer of US wealth to a few billionaires.

Today, the epitome of rebellion, arrogance and tyranny is the US government, which is controlled by the wealthy Zionist individuals and corporate owners, Khamenei tweeted.

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In the same way that the glory and splendor of the famous #Titanic ship did not prevent her from sinking, the apparent glory & splendor of the US wont prevent it from sinking. And, the US will sink, he said.

Khamenei took aim at Trumps economic policies, which the president often touts as one of his greatest accomplishments, noting that markets are at record highs and and the unemployment rate is at its lowest in decades.

The current US President claims he has improved the economic situation there. Others say yes, its become better, but only for the billionaires, not for the people of the US, Khamenei said.

Without mentioning names, Khamenei appeared to cite Democratic candidates like Bernie Sanders or Elizabeth Warren.

These arent my words, but the words of a member of the U.S. ruling body. He says over $100B has been added to the wealth of the 5 richest people in the US in the 3 years of Trumps presidency. 3 of them own wealth equal to half the US population. Look at this social gap!

The US has created the faade of being on its feet, he wrote. The US has one of the largest debts in the world today, & the gap between social classes is wider than ever, Khamenei wrote.

Khameneis comments come as Iran gears up for a crucial parliamentary election in two days, with many people in the country feeling that their lives have been crippled by an economic slump exacerbated by harsh US sanctions since Trump pulled the United States out of a landmark nuclear deal with the Islamic Republic in 2018.

Conservatives are expected to make an overwhelming resurgence in Fridays vote, which comes after months of steeply escalating tensions between Iran and its decades-old arch foe the United States.

Their gains would be made at the expense of those who back President Hassan Rouhani, a relatively moderate conservative who was re-elected in 2017 promising people more freedoms and the benefits of engagement with the West.

Rouhani urged people to go and vote, saying that taking part would give Iran the strength and unity needed in its stand against the United States.

We are going to the polls to choose the best people for parliament, which is a very important institution, he said in televised remarks after a meeting of his cabinet.

We are under severe sanctions and pressure by the global arrogance, and we have to break these sanctions and improve peoples lives, he added, referring to the United States.

People withraw money from an automated teller machine in the Iranian capital Tehrans grand bazaar on November 3, 2018. (ATTA KENARE / AFP)

Sanctions are a terrorist and tyrannical act against Iran.

One cannot say sanctions have no effect and the government should be doing more Its lies, its supporting America.

Irans electoral watchdog on Wednesday defended its decision to disqualify thousands of candidates from the vote.

The Interior Ministry said around half of the 16,033 hopefuls would contest the election after the Guardian Council barred thousands, most of them relative moderates and reformists.

But the Council said it was neutral in its dealings with all political camps and acted in accordance with the law when it blocked their candidacy.

The Guardian Council follows the laws and regulations parliament has passed at different times, said its spokesman Abbas Ali Kadkhodaee.

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Iran's Khamenei says 'Zionist-controlled' US government will sink like Titanic - The Times of Israel