US blocking humanitarian aid to flood-hit Iranians: Qassemi
Press TV – Tehran says the United States has frozen the accounts of the Iranian Red Crescent Society as part of its cruel sanctions against the Iranian people, thus preventing other countries from sending humanitarian aid to people in Iran’s flood-stricken areas.
“Given that the accounts of the Iranian Red Crescent have been blocked [due to US sanctions], no foreign citizen or Iranian national living abroad is able to send any relief aid to flood-hit people,” Iran’s Foreign Ministry Spokesman Bahram Qassemi told IRNA on Tuesday.
This measure exposes the American officials’ hostile approach towards the Iranian nation and counters all their “ridiculous” claims that the sanctions do not target the people of Iran, Qassemi said.
At least 57 people have been killed in the past two weeks in floods and extreme weather conditions in various Iranian provinces, from north to south, following the heaviest downpours in the country in at least a decade.
Iran has announced a state of emergency in several provinces threatened by flooding and forced tens of thousands of people to evacuate their homes in the affected provinces, where dozens of villages have been evacuated already.