Iran aid ship ready to set sail for crisis-hit Yemen

An Iranian cargo ship carrying humanitarian aid to the people in Yemen is ready to set sail for the impoverished Arab country.

Nejat cargo ship is about to leave the southern Iranian port city of Bandar Abbas. The consignment of humanitarian aid, organized by the Iranian Red Crescent Society (IRCS), contains 2,500 tons of medical supplies, foodstuff and tents.

Secretary General of the IRCS Ali Asghar Ahmadi said on May 7 that the IRCS has been unable to airlift humanitarian aid to Yemen due to Saudi Arabia's blockade of the country; therefore, coordination was made with certain Persian Gulf littoral states to dispatch the aid through sea.

He said that Iran has made the necessary coordination with the Yemeni Red Crescent Society as well as the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) and held consultations with Saudi Arabia’s Red Crescent Society to dispatch the cargo ship.

Last week, the IRCS dispatched relief aid to people in Yemen through Oman as Riyadh had earlier blocked Iran's humanitarian aid delivery.

On April 28, Saudi Arabia forced an Iranian cargo plane carrying medical aid and foodstuff for people in Yemen to return. The Iranian aircraft, which had earlier received permits from Omani and Yemeni aviation officials to cross into Yemen’s airspace, could not land at the Sana’a International Airport, as Saudi warplanes were violently striking the runway of the airport.

The development came less than a week after Saudi warplanes intercepted another Iranian airplane, carrying humanitarian aid to Yemen, and prevented it from entering the Yemeni airspace on April 22.

An Iranian Foreign Ministry official said after the April 22 incident that the IRCS had obtained the necessary permission to fly in the Oman-Yemen route and sent a plane in coordination with the ICRC in order to fly Yemeni patients back to Iran and distribute medical aid to the injured.

Iran’s Deputy Foreign Minister for Arab and African Affairs Hossein Amir-Abdollahian on April 26 said the Islamic Republic considers all options for helping the Yemeni people and immediate dispatch of humanitarian aid and transfer of the injured.

Saudi Arabia started its military aggression against Yemen on March 26 -- without a UN mandate -- in a bid to undermine the Houthi Ansarullah movement and to restore power to the fugitive former president, Abd Rabbuh Mansour Hadi, who is a staunch ally of Riyadh.

According to the latest UN figures, the Saudi military campaign has so far claimed the lives of over 1,400 people and injured close to 6,000 people, roughly half of whom have been civilians.

YH/HSN/HMV

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