Iran Offers Aid to UAE after Floods
TEHRAN (Tasnim) – The foreign minister of Iran expressed the country’s readiness to help the neighboring United Arab Emirates after heavy thunderstorms lashed the Arab nation, inundating and paralyzing its desert city-state of Dubai.
In a telephone conversation with his Emirati counterpart on Thursday night, Iranian Foreign Minister Hossein Amirabdollahian expressed sympathy with the UAE over heavy flooding.
He also voiced Iran’s readiness to provide assistance for the people of the UAE affected by floods.
For his part, Sheikh Abdullah bin Zayed Al Nahyan said the UAE is determined to broaden relations with Iran in various fields.
The two senior diplomats also discussed the latest developments in Gaza which is suffering from relentless Israeli atrocities, calling for an immediate end to the war and for the delivery of humanitarian aids to Palestinians.
Heavy storms have dumped more than a year and a half’s rain on Dubai in just a few hours and flooded major highways and its international airport.
The UAE did not offer any information on the overall damage.
Schools across the UAE, a federation of seven sheikhdoms, largely shut before the storm and government employees were mostly working remotely. Many other workers also stayed at home, although some ventured out, with the unfortunate finding themselves stranded in deeper-than-expected water after the water stalled their vehicles’ engines.
In Ras al-Khaimah, the country’s northernmost emirate, police said one 70-year-old man died when his vehicle was swept away by floodwater.
Fujairah, an emirate on the UAE’s eastern coast, saw the heaviest rainfall on Tuesday with 145mm falling there.
Authorities cancelled school and the government instituted remote work again for Wednesday.
