Disinfection of Sadeghiyeh, Iran, against coronavirus, photo via WikipediaBESA Center Perspectives Paper No. 1,490, March 18, 2020
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY: There is little indication that Middle Eastern rulers are learning any lessons from the devastating coronavirus. Nor is there any suggestion that they are willing to see the pandemic as an opportunity to negotiate new social contracts at a time when the virus has temporarily taken the wind out of the sails out of mass anti-government protests.
Iran has become the poster child of what happens when the public distrusts a government that has a track record of being untransparent from the outset …read more
