TEHRAN, Jan. 18 (MNA) – The Russian Defense Ministry calls on international humanitarian organizations to provide 73 settlements in Syria with medicines, ministry’s spokesman Maj. Gen. Igor Konashenkov said on Wednesday.

The aid being provided by Russia cannot satisfy the need in medicament and medicines of resident of those settlements, Konashenkov added.

He said that the Russian Defense Ministry was ready to organize deliveries of humanitarian cargoes to the settlements that need aid.

Konashenkov also expressed satisfaction that Executive Director of the UN World Food Programme Ertharin Cousin, UNICEF Executive Director Anthony Lake, UN Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs and Emergency Relief Coordinator Stephen O'Brien, Director General of the World Health Organization Margaret Chan and UN High Commissioner for Refugees Filippo Grandi quickly responded to the Russian Defense Ministry's call for providing Syrians with humanitarian aid.

Syria's war between government forces and a wide range of insurgents, including opposition groups and terrorists, such as ISIL and Jabhat Fatah al Sham, previously known as the Nusra Front, has raged for some five years and has claimed hundreds of thousands of lives.

SPUTNIK/MNA