Deputy Secretary-General Muhammad Ali Nurani of the Association for Protecting the Palestinian People announced Thursday that a Gaza flotilla will leave the southern Iranian port of Harmushhar on June 18th, carrying members of the Iranian Majlis (parliament), students and artists. It will sail via Oman, Yemen and Egypt. Director-General Firooz Rajai-Par of the International Islamic Movement's Task Force for Appreciation of Martyrs said that her movement is ready to join the flotilla as part of its willingness for martyrdom.
The flotilla organized by Iran's branch of the Red Crescent Society is supposed to have three boats carrying food and drugs, and 10,000 volunteers have indicated their willingness to take part. Sheikh Yusef Cardawi, head of the Muslim Sages' Organization and the leading Sunni interpreter of Islamic law, who supports the Hamas parent Muslim Brotherhood, is organizing a flotilla which will include a number of boats, including one carrying a group of senior Islamic religious figures.