Intl. community should fulfill duties toward refugees: Iran min.

Iran’s Interior Minister Mostafa Mohammad-Najjar has lashed out at so-called advocates of human rights for the problems they have caused in Afghanistan, urging the international community to fulfill its obligations towards refugees.

“The international community should fulfill its duties and obligations towards refugees and help improve conditions for their repatriation,” Mohammad-Najjar said in a meeting with the UN High Commissioner for Refugees Antonio Guterres in Geneva on Saturday.

He added that those who claim to advocate human rights have caused many problems in Afghanistan.

Stressing the importance of assisting the war-torn country in rebuilding infrastructures to pave the way for the return of refugees to their homeland, the Iranian minister urged the UN and the international community to play a more active role in this regard.

Mohammad-Najjar noted that Iran has been hosting refugees for more than three decades, including refugees from neighboring states.

Guterres, for his part, gave a report on the measures taken by the United Nations on refugees and praised the Islamic Republic for the support it has provided to refugees.

Mohammad-Najjar arrived in Geneva on Thursday at the official invitation of Guterres to elaborate on Iran’s policies on refugees and be updated on the UN plans.

Over the past three decades, Iran has been hosting many refugees from neighboring countries especially Afghanistan, though it has received little international support.

The voluntary repatriation of Afghan refugees from Iran has been slow in recent years in the face of poor security and economic conditions in Afghanistan, which Tehran blames on the US-led occupation of the country since 2001.