Iran: US ‘main party’ to Gaza war; its aid delivery ‘ridiculous, symbolic’

The spokesman for Iran’s Foreign Ministry says the United States is the main party responsible for the start and continuation of Israel’s on the people of Palestine in the Gaza Strip.

“The American government stood by the Zionist regime in words and deeds,” Nasser Kan’ani told reporters at his weekly press briefing in Tehran on Monday.

Since the beginning of Israel’s war in October, the US has been providing the regime with large-scale shipments of weapons, he added.

He noted that the US has been exerting pressure on the Palestinian people, slamming the “painful inaction” of the international community, particularly the United Nations, over the past five months about the Israeli regime’s brutal attacks against Gaza.

The Iranian spokesman further pointed to the “merely symbolic” move by the United States to airdrop humanitarian aid into Gaza and said Washington vetoed three resolutions calling for an immediate end to the war in the besieged strip and, at the same time, is sending its weapons to Israel.

Kan’ani emphasized that the US resorts to “ridiculous and bitter’” measures in an effort to rectify and justify its warmongering policy.

However, the people of the world are aware of the realities on the ground and will never change their minds, he said.

Gaza government slams US aid airdrop as 'theatrical, ineffective'

The government in Gaza dismisses US aid airdrop as theatrical and ineffective.

The US Central Command has announced that together with Jordan’s air force it had “conducted a combined humanitarian assistance airdrop into Gaza … to provide essential relief to civilians affected by the ongoing conflict.”

At least 31,112 Palestinians, most of them women and children, have been confirmed killed and 72,760 others wounded so far during Israel’s genocidal war, which began following Operation al-Aqsa Storm by Gaza-based resistance movements on October 7.

The war has devastated large swathes of Gaza, destroyed hospitals and displaced a major proportion of the population of 2.4 million in the world’s “largest open-air prison.”

Iran seizes US cargo on oil tanker in reaction to cruel sanctions

Elsewhere in the presser, Kan’ani said Iran’s seizure of the US oil cargo carried by the Marshall Islands-flagged Advantage Sweet in the Persian Gulf was the “outcome of the American administration’s cruel sanctions.”

He added that the US sanctions have inflicted terrible suffering on the Iranian people, particularly the patients with special diseases, as they failed to receive the necessary life-saving medicines.

A large number of Iranian patients have unfortunately lost their lives in the absence of the necessary medicines, the spokesman said.

“This is a kind of hypocrisy of the American administration, which hypocritically declares that it did not prevent the export of medicines while imposing extensive sanctions on all items exported to Iran,” Kan’ani emphasized.

“This is an obvious lie and Iran will never forget these hostilities.”

He added that a number of countries have refrained from selling medicines needed by certain patients in Iran, saying they are concerned about the imposition of US sanctions and economic punishment against their pharmaceutical companies.

Iran confiscates US oil cargo in Persian Gulf

Iran seizes a cargo of the US oil over a lawsuit filed by patients with a rare skin disease, whose lives are at risk due to inhumane US sanctions.

Reports said the confiscation took place upon a court ruling in favor of the patients afflicted with epidermolysis bullosa (EB) or butterfly patients.

In their complaint, the EB patients, who are characterized by extreme fragility of the skin and mechanically induced blistering, claimed damages against the US.

Iran sends humanitarian aid for Gazans to ports in Egypt

Kan’ani said the delivery of humanitarian aid to the war-stricken people in Gaza has been on Iran’s agenda since the outset of the crisis in the strip, adding, “We have held many diplomatic consultations and talks through Egypt.”

Given Israel’s blockade on Gaza, it is not possible for Iran to directly send its aid to Palestine, he noted.

The Iranian diplomat said the Egyptian officials have repeatedly told Iran that Israel does not allow the aid to be distributed to the Palestinian people.

“However, these [acts of obstruction] did not stop Iran’s efforts and we sent aid through Egypt,” Kan’ani said.

Iran regards regional stability, security beneficial to world

The Iranian spokesman said the recent tensions between the US vessels and the Yemeni military in the Red Sea were the outcome of the developments in Palestine.

He expressed regret that the continuation of the 5-month crisis in the Gaza Strip as a result of Israel’s warmongering policies and lack of US will to end the war have caused instability in some parts of the region.

Yemen says strikes US vessel, destroyers with naval missiles, 37 drones

The Yemeni military says it has targeted a US vessel and several destroyers with naval missiles and drones in the Red Sea.

“Iran considers regional stability and security for the benefit of the international community and regional countries and its commercial activities,” Kan’ani said.

He advised the US administration to stop leveling accusations against countries and focus on the center of the crisis.

The US is better to use its capabilities to stop Israel’s machine of mass killing, he asserted.

Press TV’s website can also be accessed at the following alternate addresses:

www.presstv.ir