Iran raps global support for Takfiri-linked drug traffickers

A senior Iranian diplomat has criticized the international community for lending support to drug traffickers linked to Takfiri terrorist groups, saying such a move is “far negligible.”

While international drug traffickers, who have “obvious links to terrorist groups including Takfiri ones and organized crime gangs,” are targeting the social fabric of our society, future and young generation, the support provided by the international community to the Islamic Republic of Iran has been “far negligible,” Iran’s Ambassador and Deputy Permanent Representative to the United Nations Gholam Hossein Dehqani said in an address to the Third Committee of the 71st session of the General Assembly on International Drug Control.

As a country on the front line of the fight against illicit drugs trafficking, the Islamic Republic of Iran has sustained “huge life and property losses” to prevent the smuggling of narcotics and protect other countries from the evil of addiction, he added.

He noted that some 4,000 Iranian forces have lost their lives while 12,000 others sustained injuries in the country’s relentless fight against regional and international armed drug traffickers.

The Iranian diplomat said the country has also spent billions of dollars on equipping the border areas and creating physical barriers along its borders in order to block the drug flow into the country and its transit abroad.

“As a result, on an average, more than 80 percent of world opium and approximately 40 percent of world heroin and morphine are seized in Iran so much so that only in 2015, approximately 620 tons of different types of drugs were seized in Iran,” Dehqani added.

Iran has also implemented extensive programs such as prevention, treatment, harms reduction, rehab and social reintegration in an attempt to reduce demands for drugs, he said.

He stressed the importance of adopting a “balanced and comprehensive strategy at all levels” to ensure the expansion of regional and international cooperation for the realization of the principle of collective and international shared responsibility without heeding any political considerations.

Dehqani further emphasized that the Commission on Narcotic Drugs (CND) and the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) must sustain their leading role in addressing the global drug problem.

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