The conference will be held in the Iranian capital Tehran on March 12, and Iran’s Majlis Speaker Ali Larijani is scheduled to open the meeting, IRNA reported.

High-profile parliamentary delegations from Syria, Iraq, Lebanon, Algeria and Russia are slated to participate in the one-day event.

UN human rights investigators have for the first time blamed foreign-backed militants operating in Syria for crimes against humanity.

The UN commission further reported that crimes against humanity were committed in the northern province of Raqqa, where ethnic Kurds have been detained and tortured by militants.

The report also confirmed that al-Qaeda-linked groups such as the so-called Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL), al-Nusra Front, the Ahrar al-Sham and the Shahid Walid al-Sukhni Battalion all operate detention and torture centers in areas under their control within Syria.

On February 23, Iranian Deputy Foreign Minister for Arab and African Affairs Hossein Amir-Abdollahian stated that assistance to the strife-stricken Syrian people, fight against terrorism and a negotiated political settlement to the Syrian crisis are at the center of the Islamic Republic’s attention.

Syria sank into war in 2011 when pro-reform protests turned into a massive insurgency following the intervention of Western and regional states.

The unrest, which took in terrorist groups from across Europe, the Middle East and North Africa, has transpired as one of the bloodiest conflicts in recent history.

SHI/SHI