Iranian FM Laments West’s Failure in Global Drug War
TEHRAN (Tasnim) – Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif criticized Western countries for their failure to effectively fight against global narcotics trafficking.
“West’s failure to prevent drug trafficking is a major problem. The fight against drug smuggling should not be politicized,” Zarif said Monday in a meeting with United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) Executive Director Yury Fedotov in Tehran.
The meeting took place on the sidelines of an international conference on narcotics trafficking underway in the Iranian capital.
Voicing the Islamic Republic’s readiness to increase its cooperation with the UNODC in the global fight against illicit drugs, the Iranian minister said Iran is paying a high price for its contribution to the battle against narcotics and other countries should take on more responsibility and equally pay the price for the sake of security.
Fedotov, for his part, hailed Iran’s efforts in the global fight against narcotics and emphasized the need for more cooperation between Tehran and the UNODC in the anti-drugs campaign.
“About 75 percent of the world’s narcotics is being seized by Iran,” he added.
Fedotov also stressed that helping restore security to Afghanistan is a prerequisite to prevent narcotics-related crimes and money laundering.
Iran is on a major transit route for drugs being smuggled from Afghanistan to Europe, the Middle East and Africa.
Despite high economic and human costs, the Islamic Republic has been actively fighting drug trafficking. The war on drug trade originating from Afghanistan has claimed the lives of nearly 4,000 Iranian police officers over the past three decades.
According to the UN Office on Drugs and Crime, Iran is netting eight times more opium and three times more heroin than all other countries in the world combined.
