Zarif: Iran ready to provide Qatar with humanitarian aid

Iran is ready to give a helping hand to Qatar, Iran's Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif said at the meeting with the former UN secretary general Kofi Anan on the sidelines of a peace mediation conference in Norway.

The two sides talked about the latest developments in the six-year conflict in Syria and the recent unprecedented political crisis in the Persian Gulf involving Qatar and its Arab allies.

"Iran would respond to Qatari requests for humanitarian assistance and essential [goods] in this situation," Financial Tribune cited Zarif as saying.

Zarif arrived in Norway to participate in the Oslo Forum, an annual conference featuring panel discussions, debates and roundtable sessions on ways to promote international peace. The two-day event themed "peace-making in the new era of geopolitics" was opened on Tuesday by Zarif, EU foreign policy chief Federica Mogherini, former US secretary of state John Kerry, Norwegian Foreign Minister Borge Brende and Indonesia's top diplomat Retno Marsudi.  

During his stay in Oslo, Zarif conferred with Mogherini, Brende, Marsudi, and foreign ministers from Kenya, Bosnia, Slovakia and Croatia.