Red Cross makes first aid shipments into Iran since start of war

GENEVA: The international Red Cross movement said Tuesday that a shipment of life-saving medical supplies and other aid has crossed the border into Iran, its first since the start of the war. The shipment of medical supplies and other aid entered the country on Sunday, the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies said. The truck convoy, which set off from the Turkish capital Ankara on Friday, marked “one of the first cross-border shipments of medical supplies” by any organisation since the conflict began with a barrage of Israeli and US strikes on Iran on February 28, IFRC spokesman Tommaso Della Longa told reporters in Geneva. He said the IFRC had sent trauma kits, “designed to provide immediate, life-saving care”. “The operation is critical as humanitarian supply chains into Iran have been severely disrupted in recent weeks due to the conflict, making it increasingly difficult and more costly for essential medical and relief items to reach those in need,” he said. Della Longa said the IFRC aimed to bring in more trauma kits “in the next three weeks”. The International Committee of the Red Cross — the other part of the Red Cross movement — meanwhile said it had delivered a first cross-border aid shipment of 171 metric tonnes of essential relief items to Iran on Monday. It said a total of 14 trucks had been dispatched from its warehouse in Jordan, carrying “vital household items sufficient to meet the needs of nearly 25,090 people”, including blankets, mattresses, jerrycans, kitchen sets, tarpaulins and solar lamps.

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