Envoy Highlights Fight Agianst Illicit Drugs

Iran’s permanent representative to international organizations in Vienna said the country has been at the forefront of the war against illicit drugs and aims to curtail its smuggling to other countries. In a meeting in Vienna on Sunday, Iranian envoy Kazem Gharibabadi held talks with his Mexican counterpart, Alicia Buenrostro Massieu, on international efforts in the fight against narcotics, Tasnim News Agency reported. The Mexican ambassador was chairwoman of the 61st session of the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) which was held in Vienna in March. In the meeting, the Iranian envoy pointed to the financial burden of the seemingly unending war on illegal drugs  Iran has been fighting for four decades, saying much of the financial and human cost that Tehran is paying is because it wants to curtail the smuggling to other countries. Iran, which borders the world’s major producer of illicit drugs (Afghanistan), calls for serious attention to the  stances of countries that are at the forefront of the war on drugs, Gharibabadi said. The Mexican envoy said her country has come to the conclusion that the anti-drug war needs drastic changes and should now focus on curbing demand rather than trying to fight supply by the increasing number of crime syndicates and their agents. Iran, which has a 900km common border with Afghanistan, has been used as the main conduit for smuggling Afghan drugs to drug lords in Europe and beyond.