Victory
02-08-06, 15:43
Iranians donate bracelets, pensions to Lebanon
TEHRAN, Aug 1 (Reuters) - Retired Iranian labourer Mehdi Jokar, 67, did not give a second thought to handing over a third of his monthly pension to those wounded and made homeless by Israel's offensive against Lebanon's Hizbollah guerrillas.
"I did nothing important, our Muslim brothers in Lebanon have given their blood," he said at a gathering in a Tehran mosque on Tuesday, where some 200 people were milling round tents making donations for Lebanon and the Palestinians.
Such donation centres, run by a government foundation, were set up across the Islamic Republic for a heavily-publicised one-day collection drive.
Israel has been fighting Hizbollah since July 12, in response to the seizure of two of its soldiers in a cross-border raid. The conflict's casualties have mainly been Lebanese civilians.
Although Tehran armed and funded Hizbollah during the 1980s, deploying Revolutionary Guards in Lebanon, Tehran now insists its support for the Palestinians and its fellow Shi'ite Muslims in Hizbollah is merely moral, political and humanitarian.
Israel disputes this, saying Hizbollah is using Iranian missiles against civilian and military targets.
Iran's state television broadcast images of Iranians queuing up in various parts of the country to slip banknotes into the blue and yellow collection boxes.
BRACELET
"I have seen a woman donating her bracelet worth ten million rials ($1,100)... that was so nice," Mohammad Pazand, an official at Iran's Charity Committee, told Reuters.
However, the Charity Committee was not able to give an immediate account of how the money raised would be spent.
Hardline clerical politician Ayatollah Ahmad Jannati on Tuesday said Muslim nations should send medicine, food and weapons to Hizbollah.
The mosque in Tehran was decked out with posters of wounded children and martial Hizbollah music filled the air.
Children sheltered from the mid-day sun under umbrellas in the courtyard of the mosque, sketching their views of the war in Lebanon.
Six-year-old Pegah Yazdani drew two smiling children downing a black Israeli jet with wooden rifles.
Ommolbanin Shams, 37, brought her three children to the event after being moved to tears by images of dead children in the rubble of the Lebanese village of Qana, where at least 54 civilians were killed on Sunday.
Iran has also pledged to give $50 million to the cash-strapped Hamas led Palestinian government.
Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has drawn a sharp rebuke from the U.N. Security Council for denying the Holocaust and has likened Israel's behaviour to that of Adolf Hitler.
TEHRAN, Aug 1 (Reuters) - Retired Iranian labourer Mehdi Jokar, 67, did not give a second thought to handing over a third of his monthly pension to those wounded and made homeless by Israel's offensive against Lebanon's Hizbollah guerrillas.
"I did nothing important, our Muslim brothers in Lebanon have given their blood," he said at a gathering in a Tehran mosque on Tuesday, where some 200 people were milling round tents making donations for Lebanon and the Palestinians.
Such donation centres, run by a government foundation, were set up across the Islamic Republic for a heavily-publicised one-day collection drive.
Israel has been fighting Hizbollah since July 12, in response to the seizure of two of its soldiers in a cross-border raid. The conflict's casualties have mainly been Lebanese civilians.
Although Tehran armed and funded Hizbollah during the 1980s, deploying Revolutionary Guards in Lebanon, Tehran now insists its support for the Palestinians and its fellow Shi'ite Muslims in Hizbollah is merely moral, political and humanitarian.
Israel disputes this, saying Hizbollah is using Iranian missiles against civilian and military targets.
Iran's state television broadcast images of Iranians queuing up in various parts of the country to slip banknotes into the blue and yellow collection boxes.
BRACELET
"I have seen a woman donating her bracelet worth ten million rials ($1,100)... that was so nice," Mohammad Pazand, an official at Iran's Charity Committee, told Reuters.
However, the Charity Committee was not able to give an immediate account of how the money raised would be spent.
Hardline clerical politician Ayatollah Ahmad Jannati on Tuesday said Muslim nations should send medicine, food and weapons to Hizbollah.
The mosque in Tehran was decked out with posters of wounded children and martial Hizbollah music filled the air.
Children sheltered from the mid-day sun under umbrellas in the courtyard of the mosque, sketching their views of the war in Lebanon.
Six-year-old Pegah Yazdani drew two smiling children downing a black Israeli jet with wooden rifles.
Ommolbanin Shams, 37, brought her three children to the event after being moved to tears by images of dead children in the rubble of the Lebanese village of Qana, where at least 54 civilians were killed on Sunday.
Iran has also pledged to give $50 million to the cash-strapped Hamas led Palestinian government.
Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has drawn a sharp rebuke from the U.N. Security Council for denying the Holocaust and has likened Israel's behaviour to that of Adolf Hitler.