Libya Marks Ramadan By Sending Iraqis Food

Libya announced Friday that it would donate “large quantities of food” to Iraq in advance of the Muslim holy month of Ramadan.

The statement, carried by Libya’s official JANA news agency, urged other Arab countries to do the same.

“Libya has decided to offer large quantities of food aid to the brotherly Iraqi people as Libya’s contribution to alleviate the suffering of the Iraqi people at the approach of the holy month of Ramadan,” according to JANA, which was monitored in Cairo.

Iraq has been short of food and medicine because U.N. sanctions, imposed after Iraq’s 1990 invasion of Kuwait, prohibit Iraqi oil sales. Earlier this week, Iraq agreed to U.N. terms for limited oil sales and Iraqi officials said those sales could begin in December.

Ramadan will begin in mid-January, with the exact date determined by the sighting of the crescent moon.