US forces disrupt aid to Pakistan

The head of Iran’s Red Crescent Society says the presence of American forces in Pakistan has disrupted the process of international aid to the flood-stricken people.

“Western countries only make decisions on paper, and have not provided the flood-stricken people of Pakistan with enough help,” IRCS Secretary General Zaher Rostami said on Thursday.

Rostami said the Pakistani officials have not been able to properly manage the humanitarian aid to the damaged parts of country.

Iran has expressed readiness to send doctors and relief workers to Pakistan, he said, stressing that the IRCS is prepared to take up the management of humanitarian aid in some of the flood-hit provinces.

Iran, which was among the first countries to send aid to Pakistan, has so far dispatched 140 tons of humanitarian aid to its eastern neighbor since the floods began four weeks ago.

The World Health Organization has warned of the threat of epidemics in flood-hit areas. The WHO fears up to 300,000 could contract cholera in the aftermath of the devastating floods.

Relief agencies warn that aid is arriving too slowly for millions without clean water, food and home in the flood-hit regions of Pakistan.