Senior Iranian official and former advisor to Zarif dies of coronavirus

Hossein Sheikholeslam, Iran’s former ambassador to Syria and former advisor to current Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif, has died due to the coronavirus, semi-official Fars news agency reported late Thursday.

The editor-in-chief of a state-run news website reported on Tuesday that Sheikholeslam has been infected with coronavirus. This was later confirmed by state media.

اختصاصی
مشاور #ظریف هم #کرونا گرفت

باخبر شدم، حسین شیخ الاسلام، مشاور وزیر امورخارجه هم به کرونا مبتلا شده و به خیل مسئولین کرونایی پیوسته است.

او، هم اینک در بیمارستان #مسیح_دانشوری بستریست pic.twitter.com/2yg8zxCDFx

— مصطفی فقیهی (@Faghihimostafa1) March 2, 2020

Iranian authorities have put the death toll from the coronavirus virus at 107 as of Thursday. Several officials have contracted the virus in Iran, which has the highest death toll in the world outside of China, the epicenter of the outbreak.

Mohammad Mirmohammadi, a member of Iran’s Expediency Council, also died from coronavirus earlier this week, state media reported.

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