Iran Red Crescent to send three aid ships to Gaza [View All]

[FarCenter]

Monday, June 7, 2010
TEHRAN - Agence France-Presse
The Iranian Red Crescent said on Monday that it will send three aid ships to Gaza in the latest bid to break the blockade imposed on the Palestinian territory by Iran's archfoe Israel.

It will also send a plane carrying 30 tones of medical equipment to Egypt for onward delivery to Gaza. Red Crescent director for international affairs Abdolrauf Adibzadeh told Iranian media that two ships would leave for Gaza this week, followed at a later date by a third vessel.

The first two ships will head to Gaza in coordination with the Turkish government. Of the two ships, "one will carry 70 aid workers such as nurses and medics and the other will have foodstuffs and medicines," Adibzadeh was quoted as saying on the state television website. "The (two) ships will be sent to Gaza by end of this week," Adibzadeh told the state IRNA news agency.

The news agency said the third vessel would be equipped with an onboard operating theatre and would head for the Palestinian territory at a later date. Adibzadeh said the Red Crescent had called for Iranian volunteers to act as relief workers and accompany the first two vessels.

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