U.N. starts food deliveries to Afghanistan via Iran

A first shipment of almost 3,000 tons of wheat destined for Afghanistan was offloaded in the southern Iranian port of Bandar Abbas this month for transport by truck to Afghanistan, the WFP said.

The WFP welcomed Teheran's decision to allow food aid shipments for famine-threatened Afghanistan to pass through Iran. The aid, formerly channelled through Pakistan and Tajikistan, will help some 12 million Afghans affected by the worst drought to hit Afghanistan for decades, the AFP said.

In 1999, WFP fed more than 89 million people in 82 countries, including most of the world's refugees and internally displaced people. The U.N. Security Council Tuesday imposed an arms embargo and tightened the diplomatic and financial measures imposed in December 1999 against Afghanistan's Taliban government for failing to surrender Saudi fugitive Osama bin Laden, who is wanted by the United States on terrorist charges.

While the council imposed new sanctions for political purposes against the Taliban, the U.N. General Assembly Tuesday adopted measures calling for humanitarian assistance and reconstruction in Afghanistan.