Iran Ready to Assist 800,000 Refugees Inside AfghanistanIran is ready to assist 800,000 Afghan refugees, displaced in the US-led strikes against their country, said an Iranian relief official on Sunday.Hossein Qadimi, head of Iran's Red Crescent Society's (RCS) relief and rescue organization, said that Iran is willing to aid 1 million Afghans if world relief organizations give a hand. "The RCS is ready to set up two new camps inside the Afghan territory in the border areas with Iran whenever the need arises," Qadimi was quoted by state-run IRNA news agency as saying. Qadimi lamented that most countries in the world have not honored their aid pledges for the refugees. Earlier in the week, another official with the RCS expressed concern that Afghanistan's Taliban regime was putting obstacles to Iran's efforts to set up camps within Afghanistan to shelter refugees. Iran has been making preparations for the scenario of a flock of some 400,000 Afghans since October 7, when the U.S. began military operations against Afghanistan, accused of harboring top suspect Osama bin Laden of the September 11 devastating terror attacks. |
| People's Daily Online --- http://english.peopledaily.com.cn/ |