Spokesman:

Iran Pursuing Case of Rohingya Muslims in Myanmar

Rasa - Foreign Ministry Spokesman Bahram Qassemi underlined that senior Iranian officials are resolved to seriously pursue the case of Rohingya Muslims.

News ID: 432269

Date: 08 September 2017 - 22:38

RNA - "Iran, through diplomatic channels, is trying its best to help Rohingya Muslims in Myanmar," Qassemi said on Friday.

He said that the Iranian government has contacted the government of Myanmar via Iranian embassy in Thailand for dispatch of humanitarian aid to Rohingya Muslims by the Iranian Red Crescent Society.

"Once Myanmar accepts Iran's proposal for sending humanitarian aids a delegation from Iran's foreign ministry will travel to that country alongside the aid convoys.

In relevant remarks on Thursday, Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif called on the international community not to remain silent on the ongoing genocide against Rohingya Muslims in Myanmar and take the needed measures to bring to a halt their catastrophic situation.

"The international community has no excuse to allow the genocide of Rohingya Muslims to continue in front of our eyes,” Zarif wrote on his Twitter account.

"We must act before it is too late," the Iranian foreign minister said.

Myanmar's security forces have been attacking the Rohingya Muslims and torching their villages since October 2016 in a bid to push them out of the western state of Rakhine.

The attacks have intensified since August 25, following alleged armed attacks on police and military posts in Rakhine.

The Rohingya have been subject to communal violence by extremist Buddhists for years, forcing large groups of Muslims to take perilous journeys and seek refuge in Bangladesh and other neighboring countries.

Myanmar’s de facto leader, Aung San Suu Kyi, has come under fire for failing to protect the country’s Muslim minority from persecution.

She claimed on Wednesday that “a huge iceberg of misinformation” was spreading about violence in western Myanmar.

847/940