President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan highlighted the importance of extending the U.N. cross-border aid mechanism to Syria, in a phone call with the U.N. secretary-general on Friday.

The long-running aid operation has been in place since 2014.

Around 15.3 million people will require humanitarian protection and assistance in 2023, the highest since the beginning of the conflict in 2011, according to the U.N.

The president also told Antonio Guterres that Türkiye is ready to help the U.N. with any effort in ending the Russia-Ukraine war and de-escalating the situation in Sudan. He noted that Türkiye values the extension of the Black Sea Grain Initiative and is ready to contribute to efforts for the ammonium pipeline.

The export of Russian ammonia would be via an existing pipeline to the Black Sea.

The pipeline was designed to pump up to 2.5 million tons of ammonia gas per year from Russia's Volga region to Ukraine's Black Sea port of Pivdennyi, known as Yuzhny in Russian, near Odessa for onward shipment to international buyers. It was shut down after Russia sent its troops into Ukraine on Feb. 24.

The export of ammonia was not part of the renewal of the U.N.-backed grains corridor deal that restored commercial shipping from Ukraine.

As a country that is able to establish a dialogue with both sides of the conflict in Sudan, Erdoğan said Ankara is also ready to cooperate with the U.N. or host peace talks to end the crisis.

Also on Friday, Foreign Minister Mevlüt Çavuşoğlu said Deputy Foreign Minister Burak Akçapar would travel to Sudan next week as part of mediation efforts initiated by Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed.