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United Nations to send teams to assess Iran earthquake damage+(Japan Economic Newswire Via Thomson Dialog NewsEdge)NEW YORK, March 31_(Kyodo) _ The United Nations will send a team Saturday to assess the damage caused by the series of earthquakes that hit western Iran, the U.N. Office of the Coordination of Humanitarian Affair said Friday. The team will be comprised of representatives from the U.N. Children's Fund, the World Health Organization and the U.N. Development Program, according to a statement released by the U.N. humanitarian arm. The earthquake with a magnitude of 6.0 rocked the province around 4:50 a.m. Friday, following relatively strong quakes that shook the region from late Thursday to early Friday morning. State media reported at least 70 people were killed and more than 1,200 others injured. While the quake's epicenter was in the mountainous areas near the industrial cities of Doroud and Borujerd, more than 200 villages between the two cities have either been substantially damaged or destroyed, the United Nations said. The official Islamic Republic News Agency quoted Ali Barani, head of the Natural Disasters Headquarters in the province, as saying that all the villages in Dasht Silakhor, a region between Doroud and Boroujerd, were damaged. According to the United Nations, Iran has not requested international assistance but U.N. humanitarian officials are in close contact with U.N. humanitarian aid offices in Tehran, the statement said. Local authorities are engaged in rescuing people trapped under the debris, and the Iranian government has sent internal teams of experts to the affected area and military to aid in search and rescue and emergency response. The Iranian Red Crescent Society also aiding in the relief effort. Provincial authorities said the most urgent needs include blankets, tents, heaters and food. U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, who is visiting Britain, told reporters Washington is ready to extend humanitarian aid to Iranian victims. The United States and Iran remain at odds over Tehran's nuclear program which the West, including the United States, says is aimed at developing nuclear weapons. Meanwhile, the Japanese Embassy in Tehran said no Japanese nationals were staying in Lorestan Province. In the ancient city of Bam in southeastern Kerman Province, 30,000 people were killed in a powerful earthquake in December 2003. |