UN Chief Urges States to Focus on Crisis Solutions, Not Border Controls

United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees Filippo Grandi talks to reporters during a visit to the Jdeidat Yabus border crossing in southwestern Syria as displaced people arrive from Lebanon on October 7, 2024. (Photo by LOUAI BESHARA / AFP)
United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees Filippo Grandi talks to reporters during a visit to the Jdeidat Yabus border crossing in southwestern Syria as displaced people arrive from Lebanon on October 7, 2024. (Photo by LOUAI BESHARA / AFP)
TT

UN Chief Urges States to Focus on Crisis Solutions, Not Border Controls

United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees Filippo Grandi talks to reporters during a visit to the Jdeidat Yabus border crossing in southwestern Syria as displaced people arrive from Lebanon on October 7, 2024. (Photo by LOUAI BESHARA / AFP)
United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees Filippo Grandi talks to reporters during a visit to the Jdeidat Yabus border crossing in southwestern Syria as displaced people arrive from Lebanon on October 7, 2024. (Photo by LOUAI BESHARA / AFP)

The head of the UN refugee agency on Monday urged countries to focus on solutions to crises and to drop measures to block refugees and migrants at their borders, saying they are ineffective and sometimes illegal.
Addressing over 100 diplomats and ministers in Geneva at UNHCR's annual meeting, Filippo Grandi said an unprecedented 123 million people are displaced around the world, Reuters reported.
"You might then ask: what can be done? For a start, do not focus only on your borders," he said, urging leaders instead to look at the reasons people are fleeing their homes.



Iran Stops Indirect Talks with US in Oman

This handout picture provided by the Oman News Agency shows Oman's Foreign Minister Badr al-Busaidi (R) receiving Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araqchi in Muscat on October 14, 2024. (Photo by Salem AL-Shukeili / Oman News Agency / AFP) /
This handout picture provided by the Oman News Agency shows Oman's Foreign Minister Badr al-Busaidi (R) receiving Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araqchi in Muscat on October 14, 2024. (Photo by Salem AL-Shukeili / Oman News Agency / AFP) /
TT

Iran Stops Indirect Talks with US in Oman

This handout picture provided by the Oman News Agency shows Oman's Foreign Minister Badr al-Busaidi (R) receiving Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araqchi in Muscat on October 14, 2024. (Photo by Salem AL-Shukeili / Oman News Agency / AFP) /
This handout picture provided by the Oman News Agency shows Oman's Foreign Minister Badr al-Busaidi (R) receiving Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araqchi in Muscat on October 14, 2024. (Photo by Salem AL-Shukeili / Oman News Agency / AFP) /

Iran has stopped indirect talks with the United States in Oman as tensions remain high over a possible Israeli retaliatory strike on Tehran over an earlier missile attack, the Iranian foreign minister said Monday.

Foreign Minister Abbas Araqchi made the comment to Iranian state media while still in Muscat, Oman.

“For the time being, the Muscat process is stopped because of special situation in the region,” Araqchi said, according to the state-run IRNA news agency. “We do not see any ground for the talks until we can pass the current crisis.”

The US State Department did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Iran under new President Masoud Pezeshkian has been signaling it wants to negotiate with the US for sanctions relief. Since then-President Donald Trump pulled America out of the nuclear accord, Tehran has begun enriching uranium to nearly weapons-grade levels and increasing the size of its stockpile. However, US intelligence agencies and officials insist Iran has not begun an effort to build a nuclear weapon.

Meanwhile, Israel has threatened a major retaliatory strike over Iran’s ballistic missile attack earlier this month, the second-such direct assault on Israel by Iran since the start of the Israel-Hamas war.