IRCS Official: Iran’s aid ship in line with UN protocol
News ID: 2586861 - Thu 21 May 2015 - 11:38
http://en.mehrnews.com/news/107365/Iran-s-aid-ship-in-line-with-UN-protocol

TEHRAN, May 21 (MNA) – Iran’s Red Crescent announced the humanitarian cargo
ship is coordinated to dock in Djibouti.

Head of relief aid unit of the Iranian Red Crescent Society Nasser Charkhsaz
told reporters that the Iranian ship carrying humanitarian aid for the
people of war-stricken Yemen is to dock in Djibouti, as the international
officials from the UN, the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC),
and the World Food Program (WFP) are stationed there to hub the relief aids
dispatch to Yemen.

Charkhsaz did not give details of the scheduled stay in Djibouti, but
reaffirmed that after the legal procedures, the ship will head to Yemen.

He also expressed content with weather condition that contributes to the
ship’s movement.

Setting sail from Iran’s southern port city of Bandar Abbas on May 11, the
Nejat (Rescue) cargo ship, containing 2,500 tons of much-needed aid,
including food (like flour, rice, canned food, and bottled water), medical
supplies and tents all urgently needed in the conflict-wracked and
impoverished state.

Its passengers include doctors, anti-war activists from the United States,
France and Germany, and journalists.

Having UN approval for the humanitarian mission, the aid consignment was
donated by the IRCS and was set to dock in Yemen’s port of al-Hudaydah in
the Red Sea, but the problems in the Red Sea led officials to change the
path after coordinating with international bodies and Iran’s foreign
ministry.

Riyadh has blocked earlier Iranian aid deliveries to Yemen. Last month, it
prevented two Iranian civilian planes from delivering medical aid and
foodstuff to the impoverished people.

Before Saudi siege on humanitarian aids, Tehran had previously dispatched 50
tones of medical aid and foodstuff to Sana’a.

On Wednesday, UN aid chief Valerie Amos met Iranian Foreign Minister
Mohammad Javad Zarif in Tehran to discuss speeding up relief to Yemen.

Earlier this month, the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) and
medical charity group Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF), known in English as
Doctors Without Borders, expressed “extreme" concern about the Saudi
airstrikes on Yemen’s lifelines and its obstruction of aid deliveries to the
impoverished nation.

UN Humanitarian Coordinator for Yemen Johannes Van der Klaauw said on Friday
that over 1,600 people have been killed and more than 6,200 injured in Yemen
since conflict intensified there in late March.

He added that some 450,000 people have been displaced as a result of the
continuing violence.