ShareTEHRAN: Iran’s Red Crescent said yesterday it has prepared an aid package for Myanmar’s Rohingya Muslims as they flee a crackdown by security forces, local media reported. “An emergency, food, life support and hygiene package has been prepared by the Red Crescent to be sent to Myanmar,” said head of the organization Morteza Salimi, according to the ISNA news agency. The package would be “immediately sent to the oppressed people of this country if we receive authorization from Myanmar,” he said, adding it had been ordered by President Hassan Rouhani.
It comprised of a plane-load of aid weighing 40 tons and worth around four billion rials (just over $100,000), Salimi later told AFP. Iranian officials have repeatedly condemned the massive security operations by the Myanmar army that followed a series of deadly ambushes by Rohingya militants on August 25. The United Nations says 164,000 refugees have so far #ed to neighboring Bangladesh. Iran’s ambassador to the UN, Gholam Ali Khoshrou, yesterday said he was working to bring together ministers and diplomats from several Islamic countries to discuss the issue.—AFP
