Iran is still peddling its usual poison around the globe, meaning that it’s basically another day ending in a “Y” in that regard. One continuing and highly disturbing trend that keeps showing up is the regime’s tendency to spread misinformation and lies about the coronavirus pandemic that’s been hitting the people of Iran in one of the worst hotspots on the globe. One of the common claims coming out of Iranian state news outlets concerns the original source of the virus.

If Iran’s Mullahs were going to blame the disease on someone, who do you think it would be? If you’re thinking “America,” you’ll need to guess again. (That’s China’s answer.) Think really hard. Who does Iran always blame everything in the world on if it’s not us? Of course. It’s all the fault of the Jews.

To date, Iran has had the highest number of reported deaths from the COVID-19 global pandemic out of any country in Asia other than China. While battling this virus, the regime has once again become the number one state sponsor of scapegoating Jewish people, baselessly blaming world Jewry for the disease’s spread. Indeed, this crisis has led the regime to engage in fantastical, outrageous conspiracy theories about the current pandemic that are deeply infused with antisemitism, including classic tropes. These include claiming the disease is an attack on Iran by using genies and magic, that COVID-19 is part of an external biological attack on Iran by the United States with Jewish and Israeli assistance, and that the virus is part of a Zionist plot to gain global power.

You almost have to give them credit for creativity. They’re not just blaming some coalition of American and Israeli scientists for cooking up the virus. (Though they’re doing that also.) They’re accusing “the Jews” of sorcery and consorting with genies. Their Supreme Leader is quoted as saying, “there are enemies who are genies, and there are enemies who are humans, and they help one another. ”

He goes on to say, “There is no doubt that the Jews and especially the Zionists previously have a long history of supernatural affairs and matters such as a relationship with the devil and genies” Maybe it’s just me, but if everyone in Israel (and all Jews around the globe, I assume) have such ready access to genies, you’d think they’d have a lot more wishes being granted and a lot less hatred and violence from antisemitic forces.

Keep in mind that the Iranian regime is saying all of this at the same time that they are literally stealing billions in dollars of aid that was supposed to go to help their own people. The money is disappearing faster than the pallets full of cash that Obama sent to them a few years back. Surgical masks and other PPE destined for Iranian citizens is magically disappearing (darned genies!) and showing up on the black market for exorbitant prices rather than being distributed to the populace.

Iran didn’t have to be taking such a beating, but they managed to botch their initial response about as badly as could be imagined. They initially laughed off the virus as something to not be concerned about. Then, after the real danger was too obvious to be ignored, they failed to cancel airline travel to and from China.

It should be obvious by this point that global sanctions on Iran have left them in the pocket of China, one of only a few nations willing to do any business with them. And they prioritized that relationship over the health of their own people out of fear that China might retaliate against them if they instituted a travel ban. By the time the citizens got around to noticing that a plague was spreading out of control, it was far too late.

But I’m guessing that’s probably the fault of the Jews too. And the genies, of course. We mustn’t forget the genies.