Iran’s medical society has called on the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) to take effective measures to send relief aid to the crisis-hit Yemeni people.

Some 4,000 Iranian physicians and medical workers sent a letter to ICRC President Peter Maure on Sunday, urging the world body to take immediate action to dispatch medical assistance to the Yemeni people injured in the ongoing Saudi airstrikes.

The signatories denounced as “illegal, brutal and cruel” Saudi Arabia’s aggression against the defenseless Yemeni people, saying Riyadh’s move is “a blatant violation” of all human rights conventions.

Severe shortage of medical services and medicines coupled with the silence of international community and human rights circles on Saudi Arabia’s killing of innocent Yemeni people have created a catastrophic situation in the Arab country, the letter said.

Iran's medical society further expressed readiness to fully support any initiative by the ICRC to assist the Yemeni people.

Iran has already sent a cargo ship of relief aid to the war-wracked Yemeni people.

The cargo ship dubbed Nejat (Rescue) carrying Iran’s humanitarian supplies is scheduled to arrive in the western Yemeni port city of Hudaydah on May 21.

International activists, volunteer doctors and media personnel are also on board the ship. Iran has coordinated the mission of the ship with the United Nations.

Riyadh has blocked earlier Iranian aid deliveries to Yemen. Last month, it prevented two Iranian civilian planes from delivering medical aid and foodstuff to the impoverished people.

[caption id="" align="alignnone" width="555"] A Yemeni man sits on the rubble as people search for survivors in houses destroyed by an overnight Saudi airstrike on a residential area in Yemen's capital, Sana’a, on May 1, 2015. © AFP[/caption]

Saudi Arabia started its military aggression against Yemen on March 26 - without a UN mandate - in a bid to undermine the Houthi Ansarullah movement, which currently controls the capital, Sana’a, and major provinces, and to restore power to Yemen’s fugitive former President Abd Rabbuh Mansour Hadi, who is a staunch ally of Riyadh.

Riyadh has even failed to abide by the so-called ceasefire it announced on May 12, repeatedly carrying out deadly air raids against Yemen after the “truce” went into effect.

UN Humanitarian Coordinator for Yemen Johannes Van der Klaauw said on Friday that over 1,600 people have been killed and more than 6,200 injured in Yemen since conflict intensified there in late March.

He added that some 450,000 people have been displaced as a result of the ongoing violence.

By Press TV