he spokesperson of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs says that Iran welcomes the P.K.K. leader’s call on the group to put aside arms, calling it an important step toward reducing violence.

According to The Iran Project, Esma’eel Baqayi said on Friday that the Islamic Republic supports any process that results in the cessation of terrorism and the reinforcement of security in the neighboring Turkiye, expressing hope that the process will have a positive impact on the region.

Earlier on Tuesday, Abdullah Ocalan, the imprisoned leader of the Kurdish militant group P.K.K., called on his followers to lay down their arms after decades of battling the Turkish state. “Convene your congress and make a decision. All groups must lay their arms and the PKK must dissolve itself,” Ocalan said in a message from prison, Turkish media reported.

The message was read in Kurdish and Turkish by pro-Kurdish party politicians who visited Ocalan earlier in the day. The P.K.K. is designated a terrorist group by Turkey. And Ocalan has been in prison since 1999.