Iran to send aid ship to Gaza

Source: http://www.khaleejtimes.com/DisplayArticle09.asp?xfile=data/middleeast/2010/June/middleeast_June594.xml&section=middleeast

TEHRAN - An Iranian aid ship is to leave the Gulf port of Bandar Abbas for a 14-day journey to Gaza at the end of this week, a Red Crescent official was quoted as saying by ISNA news agency on Tuesday.

“The ship ‘Gaza Children’ is loading the cargo which will be complete by Saturday, and on Sunday it will leave Bandar Abbas for Gaza,” said Abdolraouf Adibzadeh, who is also the project’s spokesman.

“The cargo ship will only have 10 people — five reporters and five Red Crescent aid workers — on board,” he said. “There has been no talk” of Iran’s Revolutionary Guards escorting the ship.

“The ship has 1,100 tonnes of aid including medicine and food items such as flour, mineral water, rice, cooking oil, tuna cans as well as soap, blankets and some clothes, balloons and dolls for children,” Adibzadeh added.

The Iranian Red Crescent had planned to send two aid ships to the Palestinian territory earlier this month, and last week it said the boats were ready and awaiting foreign ministry approval.

But an official with the organisation said on Monday the departure for Gaza, which is under Israeli naval blockade, had been delayed due to lack of coordination and a change of cargo.

Adibzadeh did not specify when the second ship would leave.

The Iranian Red Crescent previously said a plane carrying 30 tonnes of medical equipment would also be sent to Egypt for onward delivery to Gaza, but the fate of that plan remains unclear.

Iran’s decision to send aid came after a May 31 Israeli commando raid on a Gaza-bound aid flotilla that left nine Turkish pro-Palestinian activists dead and sparked international outrage.

The Red Crescent sent an aid ship to Gaza in December 2008 but the Israeli navy prevented it from reaching the impoverished Palestinian territory.

The Islamic republic does not recognise Israel, and tensions have worsened between the two countries under President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad who has repeatedly said the Jewish state is doomed to vanish.

Israel, the sole if undeclared nuclear-armed country in the Middle East, accuses Iran of seeking nuclear weapons under the guise of a civilian programme and has not ruled out a military strike to curb Tehran’s atomic drive. Iran denies the charge.

Barak warns against new aid ships

Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barak renewed his country’s warning against any new activist aid flotilla that might try to sail into Gaza from Lebanon.

“About the coming flotilla, we’ve heard in the media that some organization, probably backed by a terror organization, (is) once again trying to send a vessel into Gaza,” Barak told reporters after meeting UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon.

“I should tell everyone that we think it’s a bit irresponsible to do that,” he said.

“It’s well known that we ask all of them, as we asked the previous flotilla, to join us and go through (the Israeli port) Ashdod and we cannot accept someone who will try to just sail directly to Gaza.”

Barak said Lebanon would be “responsible for whatever vessels or ships coming from its ports and responsible for whatever people are taken with them and boarding those ships.”
The comments represented the latest warning from Israel over any effort to circumvent its blockade of Gaza despite international pressure in the wake of a May 31 Israeli commando raid that killed nine Turkish activists aboard a flotilla of aid ships on a blockade-busting bid.

Israeli media have said that the Lebanese Shia group Hezbollah might be planning to mission to send materials into Gaza, which is controlled by Hamas, the Palestinian territory’s Islamist rulers. Israel argues that Hamas is seeking weapons from the aid missions.

Hezbollah on Friday denied reports it was backing an all-women aid flotilla planning to sail from Lebanon to Gaza, saying it did not want to give Israel a pretext to attack the activists.

Barak and the UN chief also discussed plans for an international inquiry into the May 31 raid, but the Israeli official said it may be premature.

“I shared with the secretary general our views about his expectation to establish an international inquiry into the recent incident and we expressed our view that for the time being, as long as those new flotillas are in preparation, it’s probably better to leave it on the shelf for a certain time,” Barak said.

“We are moving ahead with our independent investigation which we believe is clearly independent, reliable, credible and should be allowed to work,” he said.