Seyed Ali Marashi, president of Hajj and pilgrimage medical center at Red Crescent announced that 200 tons of medicine and medical equipment will be sent to Iraq for the Arba’een rally. Arba'een is a Shia religious ceremony of mourning.

According to Marashi, the Red Crescent will also send a specialist team of surgeons, orthopedic doctors, gynecologists, neurologists, and psychologists to help the pilgrims. Arba’een is on October 30^th this year. Most Iranian pilgrims will walk the distance between the cities of Najaf and Karbala, which is about 80 km.

This is while the Islamic Republic authorities claim that they are facing a drug shortage due to the sanctions. 

Recently on national TV, the minister of health had argued about maybe not spending 80000 dollars a year on medicines for patients with rare diseases because "it will only add a couple of years to their lives", and that maybe he could "import vaccines and baby formula" with that money.