Tehran, April 04: The spokesman of Iran’s Red Crescent Society (IRCS) says the Islamic Republic will send its third shipment of humanitarian aid to quake-hit Japan.
The third shipment will comprise of 50,000 tablets of Potassium Iodine upon the request of Japanese officials, Hossein Derakhshan told Fars News Agency on Sunday.
Demand for Potassium Iodine has soared on panic over radiation in Japan. The pills are believed to provide some protection against iodine radiation, which can cause thyroid cancer.
Derakhshan said Iran will have to source the pills from both domestic and foreign suppliers in order to provide them to quake victims in a timely fashion.
He said the pills would not leave Iran until this coming Wednesday as flights to Tokyo have been overwhelmingly busy following the March 11 earthquake.
Iran has already sent two consignment of humanitarian aid mainly comprising of canned food to Japan.
Iran was the first country in the Middle East to dispatch humanitarian aid to Japan.
On March 11, an 8.9-magnitude earthquake, off the northeast coast of Japan’s main island, unleashed a 23-foot (7-meter) tsunami and was followed by more than 50 aftershocks for hours. Almost 28,000 people are feared dead in the disaster.
The quake is now considered to be Japan’s deadliest natural disaster since the 1923 Great Kanto Earthquake, which claimed the lives of more than 142,000 people.
——–Agencies