“Given our preparedness and ample experience in rescuing storm and flood victims, Iran’s Red Crescent can provide relief assistance for those affected in New York,” said Mahmud Mozaffar, the head of the Relief and Rescue Organization within the Iranian Red Crescent.
Mozaffar told the Fars news service last Wednesday, the day after the hurricane made landfall, that the society would dispatch its relief and rescue squads with equipment to those US cities in need once US officials filed a formal request.
US officials made no request for foreign assistance, though, as part of the standard emergency practice in North America, electrical utility workers from unaffected states and Canadian provinces came into the areas hit by Sandy to restore utility services.
Mozaffar did not say if the Red Crescent made its offer directly to the US Red Cross or if the interview was the sum of the offer.
This isn’t the first time Iran has offered emergency aid to the United States. In 2010, Iran’s Foreign Ministry offered to help the United States control the huge oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico, saying Iran possessed all the required technical expertise.
The United States and many other foreign countries have offered humanitarian aid to Iran after several earthquakes. The Islamic Republic routinely refused such offers as demeaning until the Bam earthquake in 2003, when it first refused foreign aid and then changed it position and accepted considerable foreign assistance, including from American groups.
Similarly, after the recent double earthquake in East Azerbaijan province, the government first refused any foreign assistance and then changed its mind and accepted aid, mainly from Turkey, which is only a short distance from the impacted area.
