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Tehran, Nov 18, IRNA – Director General of the International Relations Department at Iran's Drug Control Headquarters, Mahmoud Bayat, said on Wednesday that Europe should practically step up its campaign against illicit drugs.
Bayat told Franz Michael Millben, Head of the European Union delegation to Afghanistan, that Europe should prove its campaign in action through cooperation in two sections, including exchange of information and mobilizing Iran with tools and systems for precise and easy control of drugs and prefabricated substances such as the X Ray systems.
He said, 'We should move towards a direction that the project on substituting poppy cultivation with other crops can be implemented in Afghanistan and stopping drug production in that country can be managed well.'
'When drugs enter Europe from Afghanistan they are sold at high prices the profits gained accordingly encourage traffickers to continue the business. The Balkans is the shortest possible way for reaching Europe and smuggling gangs take this risk for their own benefit; however, the Islamic Republic of Iran is a strong bastion against the illicit trade,' said the official.
He said as the international organizations confirm, the Islamic Republic of Iran is doing its best to fight strugglers.
'The Islamic establishment has lost many of its citizens in the campaign against narcotic drugs, protecting people of Islamic Iran and other nations against this menace.'
He went on to say that a smuggler makes maximum gains by saving incomes in European and American banks. 'The best way to harm a smuggler is to create a mechanism that would prevent him from saving and laundering illegitimate money. In that case, smugglers will lose motives and thus supplying drugs will be stopped or diminished.'
He said Iran is a country interested in cooperation with other countries in stopping cultiivation and production of drugs in Afghanistan.
The Iranian official said the Islamic Republic of Iran believes that drugs is a threat against mankind. 'The highest portion of confiscation of drugs Millben, for his part, lauded Iran's role in campaign against narcotic drugs and said compared to the past, changes are observed in drugs cultivation and production in Afghanistan now.
He urged Iran's more contribution to the ampaign against drugs cultivation and smuggling.
Concluding his remarks, Millben proposed Iran to provide a list of joint measures so that due responses can be given for them in the next two weeks and they will be raised in the Vienna session.
