Iranian Red Crescent sending field hospitals to Syria, Turkey

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The Iranian Red Crescent Society (IRCS) announced Friday that it was sending field hospitals to Syria and Turkey to help those who survived the devastating earthquake that struck both countries.

"We are currently sending field hospitals to Syria and Turkey to help those affected by the earthquake in both countries," Iranian Red Crescent Society President Pir-Hossein Kolivand told Russian news agency Sputnik.

"We will stand by the side of those affected by the earthquake in Syria and Turkey, as well as by the side of our colleagues in the Red Crescent and the Red Cross in both countries so long as we are needed," he added.

According to the IRCS chief, Iran has so far sent relief equipment and food supplies to those afflicted by the earthquake. "We have also sent search and rescue teams, and they are currently carrying out their duties in the areas hit by the earthquake."

The commander of the Islamic Revolution Guard Corps' Quds Force, Brigadier General Esmail Qaani, visited on Wednesday Aleppo, one of the cities most impacted by the earthquake.

Video footage showed the commander of the Quds Force visiting a shelter housing for those damaged by the earthquake and assuring the families in the facilities. He also inspected Iranian aid, which was one of the first to arrive in Syria.

The first Iranian plane carrying humanitarian aid landed at Damascus International Airport on Tuesday, to help the quake-stricken Syrian people. 

Iran’s Ambassador to Damascus Mehdi Sobhani, who was at the airport, said Tehran would send more planes carrying relief aid to Syria.

Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi extended his condolences to his Turkish and Syrian counterparts, Recep Tayyip Erdogan and Bashar al-Assad, in separate calls over the tragic loss of lives in the earthquake and promised his country's help and assistance. 

Also on Tuesday, Iran’s Foreign Ministry spokesperson urged the different countries to exert pressure on the US government to lift the cruel siege of Syria so that international humanitarian aid can be delivered to the quake-stricken people, without any obstacles, in the shortest possible time.

The shelter was opened as "a gift from the Islamic Republic of Iran to the disaster-afflicted brother Syrian people."

Iranian aid continues to arrive at Syrian airports, as the first plane landed at Damascus airport hours after the earthquake occurred, carrying about 45 tons of medical, food, and relief aid.

Due to the inhumane sanctions imposed on Syria, the country is being deprived of humanitarian aid. At a time that calls for unity, Western nations turned away from Syria.

In these defining moments and amid this humanitarian catastrophe, it was expected that all political rifts and rivalries would be brought aside for a short while at least, mainly because the destructive event has directly affected civilians.

Following the earthquakes, several Western countries mobilized rapidly to send aid and rescue workers to Turkey but decided to exclude Syria and neglect it, by only offering condolences and merely expressing readiness to support the affected Syrians, with nothing done on the ground, in a clear show of double standards.

The death toll from the devastating earthquake in Syria has risen to around 3,000, while rescue teams continue extensive search efforts to find survivors under the rubble.