The top Iranian diplomat made the announcement on Saturday on X, formerly known as Twitter, saying that he had discussed the issue of Syrian refugees with the UN special envoy for Syria as well as his Turkish and Russian counterparts a day earlier.
Iran, Russia and Turkiye launched an initiative in January 2017, which is known as the Astana Peace Process and is aimed at finding a political solution to the war in Syria. The initiative is backed by the United Nations.
Amirabdollahian hosted Russia’s Sergey Lavrov, Turkiye’s Hakan Fidan and UN Syria Envoy Geir Otto Pedersen in New York City, on the sidelines of the 78th UN General Assembly.
Iran’s foreign minister said in his X post that he had condemned “inhumane sanctions” in place against Syria and called on the international community to continue to help reduce the suffering of the Syrian people.
“I condemned inhumane sanctions, and stressed the need for the international community to continue to take its responsibility to reduce the suffering of the Syrian people. I announced the Islamic Republic of Iran’s support for assistance to return the refugees,” he said.
The war in Syria broke out in 2011, displacing more than 12 million people including almost 6.8 million IDPs, according to the UNHCR.