Posted on 06/30/2002 8:14:04 AM PDT by HAL9000
A plane transporting the assistance of the American government Monday in Teheran
Sunday June 30, 2002 - 11h25 GMT
TEHERAN, June 30 (AFP) - a civil cargo aircraft, transporting the assistance of the American government to the victims of the seism to Iran is waited Monday evening in Teheran, one learned Sunday at the UNICEF, in load of the routing of this assistance
Cd.-10 chartered by a private company, will leave Pisa, in Italy Monday afternoon and will gain Teheran in the evening, indicated to the AFP Souleymane Diallo, representing in Iran of the agency of the United Nations for childhood.
There will be no American on board apparatus, according to him.
The assistance comes from government agency USAID (United States Agency for International Development) and does not come from American ONG, which is a first since the introduction of the Islamic Republic, in 1979.
Mr. Diallo indicated that the UNICEF would give the assistance "to the Iranian Red Crescent and various services of the ministry for the Interior".
He did not specify the exact contents of it. However, Thursday, the United States had announced that they envisaged to send to the victims of the seism occurred Saturday in the North-West of Iran a help of a value of 300.000 dollars.
The State Department indicated that it would send six water containers of 10.000 liters, two systems of water purification being able to adapt 10.000 people per day, 5.000 wool blankets and 12.000 sets of personal hygiene.
The spokesman of the Richard Butcher, State Department, explained that the quantity and the nature of the gifts had been decided during discussions with UNO, which evaluated the requests for assistance of Iran.
The seism made 235 died, 1.300 wounded and destroyed 9.500 home and buildings, leaving 12.000 people without shelter, but, according to the World Health Organization (WHO), there would need 80.000 tents.
The UNICEF already sent 20 tons of material, in particular of the cisterns and the material of water purification.
Iran announced Tuesday that it accepted "any foreign help", including American, but required that it is not matched "conditions". The following day, the ministry for the Iranian Interior had specified that the acceptance of such a help was not "any political".
Iran and the United States do not maintain any more diplomatic relations since 1980 and the American president George W Bush classified Iran, shown "to support terrorism", in a "axis of the evil" with Iraq and the North Korea.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.