In a meeting with a group of cabinet ministers, administrative authorities and lawmakers in Tehran on Wednesday, President Rouhani said the restrictions that have banned the delivery of foreign aid for Iran and the Red Crescent Society amid the recent floods marked an “unprecedented crime.”
He also called on the Foreign Ministry and the Iranian judicial institutions to pursue the case legally, saying even the Iranian expatriates have been unable to send relief aid to Iran.
Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif has already decried the US pressures which have hampered Iran’s flood relief efforts as an act of economic terrorism.
In a tweet on Tuesday, Zarif revealed his US counterpart’s false claim that Washington would be providing relief aid for Iran, noting that Iran’s Red Crescent cannot receive any funds due to illegal US sanctions.
Record spring rainfall that has battered Iran in recent days has caused serious flooding in many areas, mainly the provinces of Golestan, Lorestan, Khuzestan, Fars and Ilam, forcing thousands to leave their homes.
At least 62 people have been killed as a result of the flooding across Iran. The southern city of Shiraz, the capital of Fars province, with 21 deaths that occurred during last week’s floods accounts for the highest number of casualties.