Armenia sent on Monday an aid convoy to neighboring Iran to help victims of devastating flash floods that have swept through hundreds of Iranian towns and villages, killing at least 70 people.
The southwestern Khuzestan province has been especially hard hit by the floods that began with heavy rains on March 19. Gholamreza Shariati, the provincial governor, told the official IRNA news agency on Saturday that six local towns "must be evacuated as soon as possible" as the government releases water from major dams that are near overflowing.
A convoy of trucks carrying 4,000 blankets, 250 beds and 30 tents left Yerevan after an official ceremony attended by Armenian Ministry of Emergency Situations Felix Tsolakian and Seyyed Kazem Sajjad, the Iranian ambassador to Armenia. Sajjad thanked the Armenian government for the aid.
Tsolakian said that the relief supplies were provided by the Armenian-Russian Center for Humanitarian Response. They will be handed over to the Iranian Red Crescent Society in the northern city of Tebriz, he told reporters.
Roobik Minasian, a Yerevan-based journalist with Radio Farda, RFE/RL’s Persian-language service, said the Armenian humanitarian assistance is “very symbolic” given the huge scale of the floods. “We can say that aid provided by other countries is also symbolic,” he said.
Tsolakian offered to help the Iranian authorities cope with the consequences of the natural disaster at a March 28 meeting with Sajjad. “We will be sending technical equipment, machinery and rescuers,” he said at a cabinet meeting in Yerevan held the following day.
The minister did not speak on Monday of a possible dispatch of Armenian rescue teams to Iran.
Armenia has maintained a cordial relationship with Iran ever since its independence. The leaders of the two nations pledged to deepen bilateral ties during Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian’s recent official visit to the Islamic Republic.