Al-Anbar, al-Riyadh-Saudi aid supplies sent to Iraq have been transported to the warehouses of the Ministry of Migration and Displaced (MOMD) due to the high rent rates of airport warehouses, according to an Iraqi relief official.

Ten days after being stored in the airport warehouses, MOMD offered to store them for free in the warehouses belonging to the ministry. Vice president of executive committee at al-Furatain Foundation for Human Relief Hamed al-Dulaimi told Asharq Al-Awsat that officials at the Iraqi Ministry of Health will take random samples of the supplies to check their safety after being improperly stored at the airport. Al-Dulaimi denied that the Saudi supplies were stolen.

Iraqi relief official stressed that the relief aid needs to be in al-Anbar as soon as possible especially now that Fallujah’s liberation operations started. He added that officials at the Ministry of Health want to reduce the duration of testing to speed-up the process.

On the other hand, al-Anbar Council member Raj’e Barakat al-Isawi said that routine procedures and bureaucracy prevented the aid to reach al-Anbar swiftly. He explained that the aid was sent from Saudi Arabia as an initiative from The Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques King Salman bin Abdulaziz where the first plane reached on May 11 and two more the coming days carrying 315 tons of aid relief.

Al-Isawi added that the shipment was held at the airport because of routine procedures including testing samples, and then it had to be approved to be delivered afterwards to the officials.

He explained that al-Anbar didn’t receive anything yet and that the city council awaits approval from officials to receive the relief aid to be distributed to citizens of al-Anbar and the displaced from Fallujah.

Council member al-Isawi explained the difficult situation of the people of Fallujah due to the double siege imposed by ISIS members preventing them from leaving the town, and the siege the security forces had to impose to prevent reinforcements from reaching ISIS.