TEHRAN – Mohammad Reza Rahchamani, a former Iranian MP, passed away on Monday of the coronavirus disease.

Rahchamani, 64, died at the Masih Daneshvari Hospital.

He was a reformist politician and represented Sabzevar in the Parliament from 1984 to 2000.  

During the early 2000s, he headed Iran’s State Welfare Organization.

Rahchamani was born in 1952 in Sabzevar and studied medicine.

Rahchamani, the secretary general of the National and Cooperation Party, was a candidate in the Feb. 2 parliamentary election.

Farzad Tazari, a former official at the IRGC’s political bureau, also died of the coronavirus on Monday.

Fatemeh Rahbar, a conservative female politician who was elected to the parliament in the Feb. 2 election, also died of coronavirus on Saturday.

Rahbar was among the top principlist candidates who won all the 30 seats in the Tehran constituency. She had served as a lawmaker for three consecutive four-year terms.

Hossein Sheikholeslam, Iran’s former ambassador to Syria, former advisor to current Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif, and former MP, also died from coronavirus on Thursday.

On March 2, Mohammad Mirmohammadi, a member of the Expediency Council and former parliamentarian, also died due to the same infection.

In late February, Mohammad Ali Ramezani, who was re-elected to parliament from Astaneh Ashrafiyeh in northern Gilan province, also died due to respiratory problems caused by coronavirus.

Iran has been scrambling to contain the rapid spread of the infection.

Iran has closed schools and universities, suspended major cultural and sporting events and reduced working hours across the country to slow the contagion, which has spread to all of its provinces.

Iranian authorities also ordered the closure of the gyms and sports events by the end of winter.

The coronavirus is spreading in the Middle East, Europe, the U.S. and other parts of the world, while parts of China begin to lower their emergency response level as the number of new cases reported there continues to slow.

NA/PA