Iran FM: US humanitarian aid in Gaza mere gesture
The Iranian foreign minister said that the United States has mostly made a symbolic gesture for sending humanitarian aid into Gaza and, in practice, nothing significant is happening.
Referring to the US military aid to Israel, Hossein Amir-Abdollahian said as Americans are sending all kinds of weapons, including phosphorous and prohibited weapons to Tel Aviv through Cyprus, or directly from all their bases across the region and killing the oppressed people of Gaza, their humanitarian aid gestures are nothing more than a claim that they are providing humanitarian assistance, and in practice nothing significant is happening.
On the sidelines of a meeting with UN humanitarian chief in Geneva on Wednesday, the Iranian official said the aim of his visit to Geneva is to hold talks with UN and other officials on aid deliveries to Gaza.
During the meeting with UN humanitarian chief Martin Griffiths, he called on the United Nations Wednesday to do more to get desperately needed aid into the besieged strip.
“The amount of humanitarian aid sent to Gaza is very small, almost zero, and it is necessary for the United Nations to take immediate and serious action in this regard,” Amir-Abdollahian said.
Trucks carrying the first delivery of fuel to Gaza since the Israel-Hamas war began on October 7 crossed from Egypt on Wednesday but the UN agency for Palestinian refugees said it was “not at all enough”.
In his talks with Griffiths, the foreign minister called for “strong and urgent management by the UN to remove the blockage at the Rafah border crossing and get humanitarian aid into Gaza”. He also called for an immediate halt to Israel’s bloody aggression against the Gaza Strip, stressing that the occupying regime has “no chance” to win the war.
The Palestinian enclave has endured more than five weeks of Israeli air and ground attack that have killed 11,320 people, mostly civilians, according to its Health Ministry.
Hamas stance
Referring to his meetings in Doha with Qatari and Hamas officials, Amir-Abdollahian said that the Palestinian resistance movement is ready to act regarding the captives being held by Hamas since the October 7 operation.
“If the Israeli regime stops the genocide in Gaza, resistance groups will also stop counterattacks,” he noted.
The UN humanitarian chief, for his part, expressed his satisfaction with the meeting and expounded on the UN humanitarian efforts in Gaza.
He also underlined the need to find a solution to the issue of Israeli captives and provide basic needs, especially fuel, to the Gazans.
Griffiths further voiced concern about the terrible condition inside Gaza’s Shifa hospital, which is a tragedy amid Israel’s military raid.
The general director of hospitals in the Gaza Strip says Israeli troops have fired at people inside the hospital.
He appreciated Iran’s efforts to prevent the spread of the war and stressed the need for more efforts to stop the war and end the current alarming situation in Gaza.