Iran’s President Ebrahim Raeisi says his country is ready to supply relief aids to people of Pakistan as flood inundates cities across the country leaving nearly 30 million people devastated.

In a phone call with Pakistani Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif on Saturday, Raeisi said he has tasked relevant bodies in Iran with supplying all necessary assistance to the flood-hit people as soon as possible.

He offered his condolences and expressed his sympathy with the Pakistani prime minister over the tragedy. 

Elsewhere in his remarks, the Iranian president also stressed the importance of improving cordial relations between Tehran and Islamabad.

The Pakistani prime minister, for his part, briefed President Raeisi on the damage caused by the deadly floods and hailed the Iranian government and people for their sympathy.

Sharif said Iran has always supported Pakistan in hard times.

Two days after calling the floods “a catastrophe of epic scale,” Climate Change Minister Sherry Rehman said on Friday that the Islamabad government had declared an emergency while appealing for international assistance.

According to the National Disaster Management Authority (NDMA), more than 900 people have been killed this year – including 34 in the last 24 hours – as a result of devastating rains that began in June.

Officials say this year’s floods have inundated more than a fifth of Pakistan, similar to the 2010 floods that killed more than 2,000 people in the country.