Humanitarian aid from UAE arrives in Iran for Afghan refugees
A humanitarian aid package from the United Arab Emirates (UAE) for Afghan refugees arrived Monday October 15 in Mashhad, north-eastern Iran, the official Iranian IRNA news agency reported.
The aid includes 40 tons of food and is the first part of a delivery of 150 tons to Afghan refugees, IRNA said, adding that the president of the UAE's Red Crescent association, Mohammed Nasser al-Swaidi, accompanied the consignment.
The Emirati official is to hold talks with the local authorities of the north-eastern Iranian province of Khorrassan ON setting up an air lift of aid from the UAE to Mashhad and Zahedan, in south-eastern Iran, IRNA said.
Iran has a border stretching some 900 kilometers (60 miles) with Afghanistan and has taken in around two million Afghans since 1979, but has closed its borders to Afghan refugees since the September 11 attacks in the United States. — (AFP, Tehran)
© Agence France Presse 2001
© 2001 Mena Report (www.menareport.com)
