Iran stresses int'l campaign against drug trafficking

Vienna, March 11, IRNA – Visiting Interior Minister Abdolreza Rahmani Fazli in a meeting with UN officials on Wednesday, has called for international campaign against drug trafficking. Speaking in a meeting with UN's International Narcotics Control Board (INCB), he noted that UN does not have adequate support for Iran's campaign against drug trafficking. Iran has paid a high cost in fight against drug smugglers who want to transit drug from Afghanistan to other countries using Iran's soil, Rahmani Fazli added. He noted that Iran is fully bound to the international conventions against drug trafficking. US and European countries will benefit supporting Iran in its fight against drug trafficking, Rahmani Fazli underlined. He said that Iran has achieved good progress in fight against drug trafficking but unfortunately Afghanistan and Pakistan borders are not very much protected and Iran has to pay the price for that. Rahmani Fazli underscored that UN should urge its members states including the American and European states to intensify the fight against drug trafficking. President of the International Narcotics Control Board (INCB) for his part called for increase of cooperation between INCB and Iran. Lochan Naidoo praised Iran's initiations against drug trafficking. The Iranian minister said that Iran is the neighbor of a country that supplies 90 percent of the world opium. No country in the world can compete with Iran when it comes to the amount of the narcotics discovered and seized, he said. According to the UNODC World Drug Report, Iran accounted for the highest rate of opium seizures (80 percent) as well as heroin seizures (30 percent) in the world last year. According to official estimates, Iran's battle against drugs cost the country around $1 billion annually. Strategies pursued by Tehran include digging canals, building barriers and installing barbed wire to seal the country's borders, especially in the East.