Iranian Delegation Due in Bangladesh on Rohingya Relief

An Iranian delegation headed by Deputy Foreign Minister for Asia-Pacific Affairs Ebrahim Rahimpour, accompanied by officials from Iranian Red Crescent Society, will leave Tehran for Bangladesh on Friday to help coordinate relief efforts for Rohingya Muslim refugees fleeing the Myanmar Army’s persecution. Iran has to shift its humanitarian aid aimed for the oppressed Rohingya Muslims in Myanmar to Bangladesh after the earlier consignments of such packages could not make it through the Myanmar’s customs, which has adopted an uncooperative approach. “The Iranian delegation will visit the Rohingya refugee camps in Cox’s Bazar where thousands of Rohingya Muslims have taken refuge”, Foreign Ministry Spokesman Bahram Qasemi told Fars New Agency. Qasemi said Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif would raise the issue of the Rohingya plight in his next week’s trip to the United Nations General Assembly in New York. Leader of Islamic Revolution Ayatollah Seyyed Ali Khamenei on Tuesday lambasted the inaction of international organizations regarding the crisis and called for an emergency meeting of the Organization of Islamic Cooperation to take practical measures to stop the persecution of the impoverished community. An estimated 370,000 Rohingya Muslim refugees have fled to Bangladesh to escape violence in Myanmar since late August.