TEHRAN (Dispatches) -- A senior official of Iran's Red Crescent Society (IRCS) on Wednesday lashed out at the Myanmar regime for preventing international humanitarian aid from reaching Rohingya Muslims amid an ongoing crackdown.
"Myanmar doesn’t allow aid for Muslims to enter its soil," head of the IRCS's Rescue and Relief Organization Morteza Salimi said.
Iran is sending its third cargo of humanitarian aid, including 30 tonnes of food, medicine and medical equipment, to Bangladesh for distribution among the displaced Rohingya, Salimi said as he urged all countries to help get the shipment to those affected.
Iran, he said, is making efforts to set up accommodation facilities and field hospitals for the displaced Myanmar Muslims.
Head of Iran's Red Crescent Society Ali Asghar Payvandi headed to Bangladesh on Tuesday night. The Islamic Republic has sent two 30-tonne and 40-tonne cargos of humanitarian aid to the Muslims in Myanmar via Bangladesh in the past month.
Iranian Health Minister Hassan Qazizadeh Hashemi urged the international community to take practical steps toward putting an immediate end to the ongoing genocide of Rohingya Muslims in Myanmar.
"Let me express my special tribute to all the people who have lost their lives as the result of extremism and terrorism, particularly the innocent victims of Syria and Yemen and recently in the Rohingya in Myanmar,” he said.
"We must also take practical steps to stop violence against Rohingya minority," Qazizadeh Hashemi added.
The Rohingya Muslims in Myanmar have long been subjected to discrimination in the Buddhist-majority country, which denies them citizenship.
Myanmar's government regards them as illegal migrants from Bangladesh, even if they have lived in the country for generations.