Iran, Afghanistan Discuss War on Drugs

Senior Iranian and Afghan anti-narcotic officials have discussed ways to counter drug trafficking from Afghanistan to Iran and other countries.

Commander of Anti-narcotics Division of Iran’s Police Force, General Ali Moayedi met General Baz Mohammad Ahmadi, the Afghan deputy interior minister of counter-narcotics division in Tehran, Press TV reported.

Moayedi said international organizations such as the UN Office of Drugs and Crime (UNODC) have only assisted Iran in gathering intelligence on fighting drug smuggling.

“To positively fight the war on drugs, Iran needs long-term assistance from the international community; however, Iran has received the least amount of help, compared with other countries,” he told Press TV.

He further said that Iran has counter-narcotics agreements with several European, Asian, and Central Asian states. Tehran participates in a number of multilateral agencies involved in controlling drug abuse, including the Drug Control Coordination Unit of the Economic Cooperation Organization and the 6+2 group on Afghanistan (comprising six Central Asian states plus Russia and the United States), he said.

For his part, General Ahmadi said Afghanistan will use Iran’s expertise in controlling drug smuggling along its borders.

The majority of opium produced in Afghanistan, the biggest opium producer in the world, is smuggled to Iran, Pakistan and Tajikistan, while the final destinations are mostly the western countries.

“Several meetings have been held between the regional countries to share intelligence and work together to reduce drug smuggling. We are looking for better ways to fight on drugs in Afghanistan. We are specially looking to Iran for guidance because of its strong counter-narcotics police division,” the Afghan official said.

The Iranian official also said that more than 3,700 Iranian security forces have been killed in Iran’s war on drugs in the past three decades.
Iran’s police reduced drug crimes by 20 percent by seizing around 430 tons of narcotics, mainly around the country’s eastern borders during the past year, he said.

According to the UN Drug Report 2011, Iran, which shares a 936-kilometer border with Afghanistan and a 909-kilometer frontier with Pakistan, has intercepted 89 percent of all the opium seized worldwide.
The Iranian government has set up static defenses such as manpower and electronic equipment along the border to increase its control of the area.