An Iranian ship carrying humanitarian supplies left the Iranian port city of Bandar Abbas for crisis-hit Yemen on Monday, as Saudi Arabia continues to pound the impoverished country with deadly air raids.
The Nejat [Rescue] cargo ship, containing 2,500 tons of much-needed aid, including food, medical supplies and tents, left for Yemen on Monday.
The aid consignment was donated by the Iranian Red Crescent Society [IRCS].
The vessel is set to unload its cargo in the southern Yemeni city of Aden or al-Hudaydah port.
Iranian officials have said the ship would reach Yemen within the next 10 to 12 days.
They added that Iran has made the necessary coordination with the Yemeni Red Crescent Society as well as the International Committee of the Red Cross [ICRC] and held consultations with the Red Crescent Society of Saudi Arabia, Oman and Djibouti to dispatch the cargo ship.
Saudi Arabia has already blocked Iranian aid deliveries to Yemen.
Saudi Arabia on April 28 forced an Iranian cargo plane carrying medical aid and food 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 Yemen’s airspace, could not land at the international airport in the Yemeni capital, Sana’a, as Saudi warplanes were violently striking the runway of the civil airport.
Moreover, the development came less than a week after Saudi fighter jets intercepted an Iranian airplan carrying humanitarian aid to Yemen, and prevented it from entering the Yemeni airspace on April 22.
Saudi Arabia started its US-led military aggression against Yemen on March 26 - without a UN mandate - in a bid to undermine the Houthi Ansarullah movement, which currently controls the capital, Sana’a, and other major provinces, and to restore power to Yemen’s fugitive former president, Abd Rabbuh Mansour Hadi, who is a close ally of Saudi Arabia.
The US-led Saudi military aggression has reportedly claimed the lives of over 1,200 people so far and injured thousands of others.
