iranian red crescent

Head of National Humanitarian Law Committee and President of the Iranian Red Crescent Society, Dr. Seyed Amir Mohsen Ziaee, made a statement regarding the recent attack against two ICRC staff members in Yemen. In his statement, Dr. Ziaee mentioned: "It was with great sorrow that we learned about an attack against two ICRC staff members in Yemen, which led to their loss of life. Reports suggest that in the context of Yemen crisis, aiming attacks at humanitarian workers and civilians has become a routine, which is adding up to the concerns of humanitarian community in terms of how to provide Yemeni victims with assistance. This is an alarm for all int’l and regional actors to promptly mobilize their resources in a collective manner in a bid to support Yemeni victims. There is no doubt that resorting to military measures only makes the situation more complicated and multiplies the scope of crisis, and therefore wastes the opportunity to help those women, men and children who are by no means involved in the conflict. The recent attack on ICRC staff members as well as several similar attacks against Yemeni Red Crescent staff, are not only a clear violation of Arts. 48 and 51 of API on the protection of civilians, but also in another sense a violation of clause 1 of Art. 18 of APII on the action of relief societies. While strongly condemning the attacks launched against humanitarian workers and civilians, IRCS and the secretariat of NCHL would like to hereby invite the humanitarian community to support the victims of this crisis through all their available means; and also makes request to the members of the Movement to defend the rights of civilians and relief workers whose lives are at stake due to the current crisis. It goes without saying that attacking relief workers and medical staff in Yemen is urging the members of Int’l RC/RC Movement to increase their efforts in support of HCiD project in different int’l events, especially in the upcoming Int’l Conference. I, the undersigned, as the president of IRCS and head of NCHL secretariat, hereby would like to kindly express my most heartfelt condolences to the great ICRC family, and would reiterate the readiness of IRCS to support the victims of humanitarian crisis in Yemen through cooperation with the ICRC.   Dr. Amir Mohsen Ziaei Head of NCHL and President of IRCS"