Iran’s leaders vowed to overcome the new coronavirus outbreak in upbeat messages marking the Persian New Year on Friday, even as the Health Ministry announced 149 more fatalities, bringing the country’s death toll to 1,433.
Iran is battling the worst outbreak in the Middle East, with nearly 20,000 confirmed cases, and has been widely criticized for its slow response.
Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, who has final say on all state matters, called the new year “the year of leaps in production” in Iran’s economy, which has been under heavy U.S.
sanctions since President Donald Trump withdrew from the 2015 nuclear accord. President Hassan Rouhani also marked the new year, known as Nowruz, by promising a better economy. “We will put the