By NNN-IRNA,
London : Young Iranians are paying the price for NATO’s “failure” to curb opium production in neighbouring Afghanistan, according to Deputy Foreign Minister for European Affairs Mehdi Safari.
Safari said the volume of opium-based drugs being smuggled through Iran from Afghanistan – the source of more than 90 per cent of the world’s opium – had increased fivefold over five years, and the drugs themselves had become far more potent.
“Unfortunately the situation in Afghanistan every day is getting worse and worse. If you compare it to five or six years ago, it is more than gloomy,” he warned.
The deputy minister was speaking in an interview published in the Guardian newspaper Thursday at the end of a three-day visit to Britain, where he held wide-ranging discussions with various ministers and officials.
Britain has been the lead nation responsible for countering narcotics in Afghanistan since the overthrow of the Taliban regime in 2001.
Counter-narcotics is one of the few areas of cooperation between Iran and Britain, but Safari expressed frustration at not only the lack of progress but the increase in poppy cultivation that has led to record harvest.
“Iran has a very young generation and you know what effect such drugs have on our population. So this is a big headache for us,” he said.
The deputy minister pointed out that of the laboratories producing drugs were in Helmand province, the centre of Afghanistan’s opium production, where British forces are garrisoned.
“I wish we could have just opium. But with 350 laboratories are converting opium to heroin and crystal (also known as crack),” he said.
The Guardian said that Safari had listened to politely to ministers and officials at the foreign office, but left with little hope that the situation would improve.
“They say our duty is to fight against the terrorists, not to fight against the drugs. But you cannot differentiate between the two acts. This is very correlated,” he said.
“This is a good income for the insurgents and the terrorist groups,” the deputy minister said, suggesting that the issue had to be dealt with as “package: terrorists, insurgents and narcotics.”
British diplomats were said to have acknowledged that Iran has borne the brunt of the Afghan drug trade, and has played a significant role in attempting to close the smuggling routes across its borders with Afghanistan and Pakistan.