After a direct appeal by Uzbekistan president Islam Karimov, United Nations Secretary-General Boutros Boutros-Ghali sent missions to the area for fact-finding and observation of the humanitarian situation. Subsequently, Boutros-Ghali authorized a Special Envoy for Tajikistan to seek an immediate ceasefire and negotiations between the two sides and neighboring nations. In September 1994, after talks in Moscow and Tehran, the Tehran Agreement (or the Agreement on a Temporary Ceasefire and the Cessation of Other Hostile Acts on the Tajik-Afghan Border and within the Country for the Duration of the Talks) was signed, with the stipulation that the ceasefire would be enacted as soon as UN peacekeeping observers were deployed.