The head of the International Committee of the Red Cross highlighted the great influence Iran holds in the region and called for closer cooperation between his organization and the Islamic Republic.
“ICRC is keen to increase its humanitarian cooperation with the Islamic Republic,” as part of its plan to engage in deeper interaction with countries that wield considerable influence in the region, Peter Maurer added. “Iran’s capabilities can help ICRC with it regional operations,” he was quoted as saying by IRNA in a meeting with Iran’s Deputy Foreign Minister for Legal and International Affairs Abbas Araqchi in Tehran on Wednesday. Araqchi highlighted the catastrophic humanitarian situation in Yemen and Syria, and expressed Iran’s readiness to help ICRC deliver more effective assistance to the people trapped in conflict zones in the two Arab countries.
A conflict between the Yemeni government led by the Houthi movement and the fugitive president Abd-Rabbuh Mansur Hadi, who is backed by Saudi Arabia, has killed thousands of people and triggered a humanitarian crisis in one of the Arab world’s poorest countries.
Iran and Russia are principal allies of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad in his six-year-old fight against armed militant groups supported by Persian Gulf Arab states, Turkey and the US.
The war has left hundreds of thousands dead and driven millions of Syrians from their homes.
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