Nejat cargo ship carrying Irans medical aid for Yemeni people is currently beingloaded in the southern Iranian port city of Bandar Abbas and will head to one of Yemens ports this weekend, IRCS Secretary General Ali Asghar Ahmadi said on Thursday.
Ahmadi said that during the past weeks the IRCS has been unable to airlift humanitarian aid to Yemen due toSaudi Arabia's blockade of the war-wracked 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 CrescentSocietyas well as the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) and held consultations with Saudi Arabias Red CrescentSociety to dispatch the cargo ship.
The ship contains2,500 tonnesof medical supplies, foodstuff and tents, he added.
Earlier on Sunday, Ahmadi said that IRCS had dispatched relief aid to people in Yemen through Oman as Riyadh had blocked Iran's humanitarian aid delivery to the war-wrackedcountry.
On April 28, Saudi Arabia forced an Iranian cargo plane carrying medical aid and foodstuff for crisis-hit people in Yemen to return.
The Iranian aircraft, which had earlier received permits from Omani and Yemeni aviation officials to cross into Yemens airspace, could not land at the international airport in the Yemeni capital, Sanaa, as Saudi warplanes were violently striking the runway of the civil airport.
The development cameless than a week after Saudi fighter jets intercepted another Iranian airplane, carryinghumanitarian aid to Yemen, and prevented itfrom entering the Yemeni airspace onApril 22.
An Iranian Foreign Ministry official said the IRCS hadobtained the necessary permission toflyin the Oman-Yemen route and senta plane in coordination with the ICRC in order to fly Yemeni patients back to Iran and distribute medical aid to the injured in the war-wracked country.
Irans Deputy Foreign Minister for Arab and African Affairs Hossein Amir-Abdollahian on April 26 said the Islamic Republic considers all options forhelping the Yemeni people and immediate dispatch ofhumanitarian aid and transfer of theinjured.
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 countrys fugitive former president, Abd Rabbuh Mansur Hadi,who is a staunch ally of Riyadh.
The Saudis claim the airstrikes only target military positions. However, reports show civilians and infrastructure in civilian areas are being attacked.
In a recent report, Human Rights Watch said evidence shows Saudi Arabia has used cluster munitions in the northern province of Saada in recent weeks.
The Saudi military campaign against Yemen has so far claimed the lives of over 1,000 people and injured several thousand more. Hundreds of women and children are among the victims.
By Press TV
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