MOSCOW, July 1. /TASS/. Moscow, Tehran and Ankara believe there is a need to facilitate the return of Syrian refugees to their homes, Presidents Vladimir Putin of Russia, Hassan Rouhani of Iran and Recep Tayyip Erdogan of Turkey said in a joint statement following a video conference on Wednesday.
According to the statement, the three presidents "highlighted the need to facilitate safe and voluntary return of refugees and internally displaced persons (IDPs) to their original places of residence in Syria, ensuring their right to return and right to be supported." "In this regard, they called upon the international community to provide appropriate contributions for their resettlement and normal life as well as to undertake greater responsibility in burden-sharing and to enhance their assistance to Syria, inter alia by developing early recovery projects, including basic infrastructure assets - water and power supply facilities, schools and hospitals as well as the humanitarian mine action," the document adds.
Putin, Rouhani and Erdogan "reaffirmed their determination to continue operations on mutual release of detainees/abductees within the framework of the respective Working Group of the Astana format." They pointed out that "the Working Group was a unique mechanism that had proved to be effective and necessary for building confidence between the Syrian parties, and agreed to take measures to continue its work".