Iran Revolutionary Guards ready to escort Gaza aid ships

Iranian Shiite cleric, Ali Shirazi announced that Iran’s Revolutionary Guards is ready to escort aid convoys to Gaza in full force and confront the enemy with a “spontaneous global movement.”

Mehr news agency reports that according to Ali Shirazi defending the people of Gaza against the “unjust” Israeli attack on the aid convoy of peace and freedom is the “responsibility” of the Islamic Republic.

Last week Israeli commandos boarded an aid flotilla to Gaza causing the death of ten passengers which were mostly Turkish.

Right before today’s announcement that Iran’s Revolutionary Guards are ready to escort aid convoys to Gaza, Greta Berlin, one of the organizers of Gaza aid efforts announced that their group will not accept assistance from Iran and extremists groups.

Israel accuses Iran of supplying military weapons to Hamas which it uses to justify its siege on Gaza.

IRNA reports that Iran is trying to send humanitarian aid to Gaza in ships sailing under Iranian flags. Islamic Republic Red Crescent chief of International Aid announced that the ships are carrying food, medicine and medical equipment and that until the end of the week, Iran will send two of these ships to Gaza.

He claimed at first they were planning to send the aid through an intermediary but after “coordination with Red Cross, Red Crescent and Red Cross International Committee” it was decided that the aid would be sent to Gaza directly.

On Saturday, Irish aid ship Rachel Corrie was stopped on its way to Gaza by Israeli forces in the Mediterranean Sea.

Israel has refused to allow UN inspectors to investigate Israel’s last week attack on the aid flotilla to Gaza.