The disastrous situation, however, unfolded various dimensions of relations among Iranian people, their friends and the rest of the world.

The floods began on the eve of the Iranian New Year in the northern provinces of the country, Golestan and Mazandaran. Then the heavy rains continued over the next days in the two-week holiday in other provinces across the country, with focal points in the west and southwestern Iran. One tragic incident occurred in the southern Province of Fars that flooded at least 200 cars and claimed the lives of some 20 people.

Currently, the southeastern and northeastern Provinces of Kerman and Khorasan are challenging with the heavy rains, to the extent that the governors of the provinces have been ordered to stay at their offices overnight in order to take necessary measures in case of crisis.

The Iranian officials, however, were not the only ones staying vigilant. Ordinary people have also been working shoulder to shoulder to manage the crises. People from around the country rushed to help the affected people either in person by giving a hand to the rescue teams or by sending their aid in cash or kind. The flooding, at some point, challenged 25 provinces out of the total 31, with billions of dollars damages inflicted on infrastructures, private properties, buildings and farms. At least 76 people were killed in the disasters, according to the Iranian Interior Minister Abdul Reza Rahmani Fazli.

Although painful the flooding was, it also had a bright side. The natural disasters spurred the sense of solidarity among people irrespective of their ethnicity, language or religion. The climax of solidarity was displayed in the legendary cooperation of the youth in Dehlaviyeh, Khuzestan Province who used their bodies to form a flood barrier to protect their properties, the video of which went viral.

The solidarity had an international dimension, as well as the national one. From the very early hours of the floods the condolences poured in from heads of states, senior officials or ambassadors residing in Tehran. They also went out of their way to offer helping hands to Iran in handling the rescue and relief operations.

The cooperative moves came amid the obstructing measures of the US that prevented humanitarian groups and organizations from reaching Iranian counterparts to transfer their aid to them. The anti-Iran sanctions imposed by President Donald Trump on Iran were criticized by the international community as an inhumane policy to increase pressure on Iranian people.

Calling the sanctions 'economic terrorism', Iranian Foreign Minister Javad Zarif on Twitter slammed the US for defying the UNSC resolution 2231 and the ruling of International Court of Justice. He said that the President Trump's 'maximum pressure' has impeded the aid efforts by the Iranian Red Crescent to all communities.

Contrary to the US, many other parties, including the European allies of Washington, spared no efforts to dispatch their aid to Iranian people. Germany, Sweden, Oman, Japan, Lebanon, Iraq and many other countries across the world extended their generous aid, with a number of voluntary popular campaigns being launched in Iraq and Lebanon to give back the affection and sympathy they had received from Iranians during hardships.

The natural disasters, with all the difficulties they impose on people, would be over soon or late, but the friendship they arise or the hostilities they uncover would be remembered by nations for years to come.

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