“Thanks to cruel US sanctions, we have not been able to transfer the cash humanitarian aid of 20 countries, which amounts up to three million euros, into the country,” Peyvandi said.
“Iranian forex accounts are still blocked and the flood-hit people have not taken advantage of the international humanitarian aid yet,” he added.
As he informed, some letters have been sent to UN officials and head of International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) in this regard and Iran is hopeful to find a way to absorb such aids into the country.
In late May-Early April, devastating floods hit 400 villages and cities in 15 provinces, including Khouzestan. Some 78 roads linking cities and 2,199 roads connecting villages have been blocked by the floods and some 84 bridges are destructed in the flood-stricken areas. At the time, several countries and international organizations have provided financial and non-financial humanitarian aids to flood-hit people in various provinces across Iran.
United States Secretary of State Michael Pompeo claimed that Washington is ready to help Iran’s flood-stricken people.
However, in a statement published in early April, Zarif said, “Secretary Pompeo and other US officials – who have with their economic terrorism endeavored to target each and every Iranian, and even tried to obstruct efforts by expatriate Iranians to make donations to the accounts of the Iranian Red Crescent – are well-advised to address the calamities of disaster-struck Americans who have been suffering from natural disasters for months, instead of trying to take abnormal and politically-driven advantage of the suffering of human beings afflicted by natural disasters.”
As reported on June 9, the US blocked €2.5 million flood aid relief to Iran. According to an Iranian Parliament Member Hossein Naghavi Hosseini announced that the US has obstructed above €2.5 million aid from International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) to flood-stricken towns and villages.
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