“It is utterly unacceptable that wounded Yemenis, particularly children and women, have been denied access to medical aid because of the continuation of the naval and aerial blockade, and the fact that they cannot be transferred outside of Yemen for treatment,” Deputy Foreign Minister for Arab and African Affairs Amir-Abdollahian said Tuesday in a meeting with Head of the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) in Yemen Cedric Schweizer.
Lauding the ICRC role in the delivery of humanitarian aid to the defenseless Yemenis, the Iranian diplomat voiced Iran’s readiness to put its humanitarian supplies at the disposal of ICRC.
Schweizer, for his part, conferred with the Iranian deputy Foreign Minister on ICRC's latest activities in Yemen, calling for regional countries to send their humanitarian aid consignments to Yemen via ICRC bureaus in the southern Omani port city of Salalah as well as the African country of Djibouti.
The meeting between Iranian deputy FM and ICRC head aimed at expanding the humanitarian cooperation between the Islamic Republic and the Red Cross committee as well as facilitating the delivery of Iranian relief aid to Yemen.
On March 26, Saudi Arabia launched its airstrikes on Yemen without a UN mandate. Riyadh seeks to restore power to fugitive former President Abd Rabbu Mansour Hadi.
According to the UN, the conflict in Yemen has claimed the lives of about 2,000 people and displaced more than 500,000.
Riyadh has blocked Iranian aid deliveries to Yemen on several occasions. In April, it prevented two Iranian civilian planes from delivering medical aid and food supplies to the impoverished people despite the fact the Iranian Red Crescent Society (IRCS) had obtained the necessary permission to fly in the Oman-Yemen route and send a plane in coordination with the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) in order to fly Yemeni patients back to Iran and distribute medical aid to the injured in the impoverished Arab country.