The Stateless Rohingya Blog

Tehran Times ‎: July 7, 2013 TEHRAN – Myanmar has welcomed Iran’s proposal to hold a dialogue between Muslim and Buddhist religious scholars in order to help ease sectarian strife in the south Asian country.  Visiting Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araqchi put forth the proposal during a meeting with Myanmar’s Foreign Minister Wunna Maung Lwin on Friday.  Araqchi expressed grave concern over the ongoing clashes between Buddhists and Rohingya Muslims and the appalling situation of displaced Muslims, urging Myanmar’s officials to take effective measure to help resolve the conflicts.  The senior Iranian diplomat also said that Tehran was ready to help Myanmar’s government settle the crisis and send humanitarian aid to the affected people.  Sectarian clashes between Buddhists and Muslims have erupted on several occasions.  Muslims make up about 5 percent of the nation’s roughly 60 million people and are denied citizenship by Myanmar gove...

Fars News Agency July 4, 2013 TEHRAN (FNA)- Iranian Deputy Foreign Minister for Asia and Pacific Affairs Seyed Abbas Araqchi in a meeting with his Myanmarese counterpart Zin Yaw discussed the latest situation of the Muslims in the Southeast Asian country. During the meeting in Naypyidaw on Wednesday, Araqchi said that the Islamic Republic is prepared to dispatch humanitarian aid consignments to Myanmar in order to help with the relief of the Rohingya Muslims. He also voiced the deep concern of the Iranian authorities, scholars and nation over the ongoing sectarian clashes between Buddhists and Rohingya Muslims, urging the Myanmar government to adopt effective measures to properly resolve the issue. Araqchi further noted that Iran is ready to send aid shipments to Myanmar, and help to improve the miserable living conditions of Rohingyas. In June, the United Nations refugee agency said over 140,000 people remain displaced in Myanmar a year after extremist Buddh...

This picture shows a mosque destroyed after hundreds of extremist Buddhists armed with bricks stormed a group of Muslim villages in Okkan in Myanmar on Wednesday, May 1, 2013. Iran’s Foreign Ministry has denounced the recent attack by extremists on Muslims in the city of Okkan in Myanmar that led to the destruction of the community’s houses and holy sites. Hundreds of extremist Buddhists armed with bricks stormed a group of Muslim villages in Okkan, about 70 miles (110 kilometers) north of Yangon, on Wednesday. The Buddhist mob targeted Muslim shops and destroyed at least two mosques that left one man dead and ten others injured.  Iran’s Foreign Ministry Spokesman Ramin Mehmanparast said the clashes in Myanmar would lacerate the feelings of the people in the Islamic world and put at stake the achievements made through political and economic reforms in the country.  He lamented the destruction of the holy sites as well as threats against Muslims’ lives, and ...

This picture taken on October 11, 2012 shows a Muslim Rohingya child standing outside his tent at the Say Thamagyi Internally Displaced Persons (IDP) camp, located on the outskirts of Sittwe, capital of Myanmar's western Rakhine State. Iranian lawmaker Mansour Haqiqatpour says the humanitarian disaster in Myanmar is a result of the “wrong policies” adopted by the global arrogance, particularly the US. “ The disaster in Myanmar is the result of the wrong policy of the global arrogance, particularly the US, that has had no outcome but the hatred and displacement of a number of innocent people,” the deputy chairman of Iran’s Majlis National Security and Foreign Policy Committee said on Monday.

Iran is working to open an embassy in Myanmar, says a spokesman for Iran’s Majlis Committee on National Security and Foreign Policy. Seyyed Hossein Naqavi-Hosseini said on Saturday that the government of Myanmar has taken into consideration Iran’s offer to establish an embassy in the country and that initial preparation have been made for that matter. 

File photo shows Rohingya Muslims in an Internally Displaced Persons camp. An Iranian parliamentary delegation will set off for Myanmar on Sunday to assess the situation of the Rohingya Muslims and meet with the Southeast Asian country’s officials. “The representatives of Iran’s Foreign Ministry, Imam Khomeini Relief Committee and the Iranian Red Crescent Society will accompany the lawmakers in this visit,” Deputy Chairman of the Majlis National Security and Foreign Policy Committee Mansour Haqiqatpour said on Saturday. Earlier this month, Iran's 24-ton consignment of humanitarian aid to ethnic Rohingya Muslims arrived in Myanmar.