Minister: Iran, Afghanistan, Pakistan Spearhead Anti-Narcotics Campaign

“The three countries of Iran, Pakistan and Afghanistan, as the countries at the forefront of fighting narcotics, can expand their activities through cooperation and become more effective,” Interior Minister Abdolreza Rahmani Fazli, who is also head of Iran’s anti-drugs headquarters, said on the sidelines of the 57th session of the Commission on Narcotic Drugs (CND) in Austria’s Vienna on Friday.

He made the remarks following a trilateral meeting with high-ranking officials representing Iran’s eastern neighbors, namely Afghanistan and Pakistan.

Fazli also emphasized the need for more concerted efforts by Tehran, Islamabad and Kabul with the aim of tackling the menace of illicit drugs that has caused serious social and economic damage to the region and beyond.

The minister also stressed that Iran and its two eastern neighbors have called on the United Nations to lend more support for the three nations in the costly war on drug traffickers and narcotics.

The CND, one of the several commissions of the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC), held its 57th session in Vienna on March 13-14.

The CND has currently 53 members. During the recent session, the commission reviewed the progress made by the member states in implementing the plans previously outlined by the global body.

Iran is on a major transit route for drugs being smuggled from Afghanistan to Europe, the Middle East and Africa, and the country's war on drug-traffickers has claimed the lives of nearly 4,000 Iranian security forces over the past 34 years.

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.