US seeking to exploit coronavirus pandemic to commit ‘genocide’ in Iran: Analyst

US President Donald Trump’s administration is exploiting the coronavirus pandemic to increase its domestic police powers, while also seeking to commit "genocide" against Iranians on behalf of Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu, according to a political analyst and former US Senate candidate.

The US has a long history of harassing Iranian and Iranian-Americans in the US, many of whom have been academics charged with violating US sanctions against Iran.

In May 2018, the US reimposed widespread sanctions against the country after it withdrew from the 2015 Iran nuclear deal.

The sanctions also target much-need humanitarian aid from reaching the country despite an International Court of Justice ruling banning aid-related sanctions in 2018.

“The same [US] government that is committing these crimes against the people of Iran and exploiting this coronavirus pandemic for the benefit of the Israeli lobby and the Zionist [regime[ of Israel  is the same government that is very capable on turning its sword on American citizens and increasing its police state powers in this country,” said Mark Dankof, a former US Senate candidate who is also a broadcaster in San Antonio, Texas.

Many observers and human rights activists in the US have warned the American people about the steady growth of a police state in the country, Dankof told Press TV on Friday.

An Iranian scientist detained by the US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) has said that ICE’s handling of the coronavirus, COVID-19 outbreak may kill him along with many other inmates, according to a report.

The British daily Guardian published an interview with Iranian materials science and engineering professor Sirous Asghari on Friday detailing the “inhumane” jail conditions at his ICE facility.

Asghari, which is being detained indefinitely by ICE despite being exonerated in a US sanctions trial last November, said that little is being done to protect inmates from the outbreak in his “filthy and overcrowded” detention center.

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“In this case involving Dr. Asghari and his illegal, illegitimate, unconstitutional and immoral detention is a prime example of what the United States government is doing; this a criminal cabal, their actions as of late absolutely proves this,” Dankof said.

The Trump administration is attempting to engage in the “mass genocide of Iranians at the behest of the Netanyahu regime,” he added.

Over the past week, calls have been growing on the international stage for the US to lift the illegal sanctions against, which have hampered Iran’s efforts to battle the coronavirus outbreak.

Turning a deaf ear to those calls, the US has instead claimed readiness to aid Iranians, with President Donald Trump saying “all they (Iranians) have to do is ask.”

Iran has roundly denounced the claims as hypocritical, saying if the US genuinely sought to help it out, it should lift its sanctions targeting the Islamic Republic.

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